There are a few questions that I get asked quite regularly as a blogger, but I think that the most common one is: How and why did you start blogging?
The story of how I started blogging is somewhat bittersweet. I’ve been a blog reader for quite a while, but I didn’t start my own blog until January of 2012 when I was in my junior year of high school. My sophomore and junior year I had been on my school’s poms team, which I loved. Dancing is a major passion of mine, I’ve basically been dancing since I was a fetus, and I formally started taking ballet classes when I was about three. I was a JV captain my sophomore year and then I was on Varsity in my junior year. Both teams were very competitive and the varsity team had been going to UDA Nationals in Orlando, Florida at Disney World annually. We practiced for hours on end each week, throughout the school year and summer to learn routines for camp, pep rally, side-line at games, and nationals (pom and jazz).
Right in the middle of competition season during my junior year I had some breathing issues which made it impossible to practice and compete with my team. I had to pull myself in the middle of the season (before getting to perform at nationals) which was extremely difficult for me after all the hard work that I had put in. For the last two years, my life had been very controlled by school, poms, and homework, so I hadn’t had much free time in general since I’d been constantly taking dance classes since I was so small.
After pulling myself, I realized that I needed to give myself something new to do. If I just sat around and did nothing, I knew that I would be miserable. On January 20th, 2012 I published my first ever blog post on Bowtiful Life. Even though I couldn’t participate with my team as I used to, I still attended all of our practices, performances, events, and competitions throughout the rest of the season to help in any way possible. I also attended nationals in February to support my team. I absolutely loved my team and they’re some of the sweetest and most dedicated girls I’ve ever met. As my poms-related responsibilities decreased, I slowly started spending more time focusing on my new hobby, blogging!
After I got back from nationals I started blogging more and more. I began to create an online identity and see myself as a blogger. I didn’t tell anyone at all when I started Bowtiful Life because I was worried that I might get teased or people would think that my posts were boring and/or stupid. Once I did tell people (or they found the site) I was pleasantly surprised with the response I got. Everyone was very complimentary and interested.
Nothing gives you a confidence boost like someone you have a class with coming up to you and saying, “I just read your blog!” There’s this strange mixture of fear and excitement the first few times that you hear it, because you don’t know what their response will be. You get the tiniest adrenaline rush. (Well, at least I always used to.) I’ve gotten primarily positive reactions to my blog, and I’m quite lucky for that. There will always be a few people who try to bring you down at some point or are just rude for whatever reason, but the positive will always outweigh the negative in the grand scheme of things. I’ve also made lots of awesome friends through blogging, and I’m so grateful to have them in my life now. There are a lot of really sweet bloggers out there, you just have to network a little to find them. Or, they may even find you!
Anyhow, that’s how I started to blog. I hope this was at least somewhat interesting to all of you and you enjoyed hearing how Bowtiful Life began.
xoxo,
P.S.
Just as a side note, because I get asked this a lot after telling this story, I am still very able to dance! After a lot of doctor visits and discussions, I have a much better idea of what my limitations are and I’m still extremely active. The breathing issue is no longer negatively affecting my life. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and if I hadn’t had to go through that, then I’ll bet my life would be very different right now. If I didn’t have to stop dancing for that period of time, Bowtiful Life may never have been created! It just goes to show you that every situation has a silver lining.
