What I miss about blogging

A few days ago I was washing my hands in the restaurant of a local brewery during happy hour when a girl, washing her hands next to me, recognized me from my blog. How sweet it was to be be greeted by the name of my blog – what has for a long time been such a special pocket of my life. I introduced myself and embarassingly admitted that I had really been neglecting my blog lately. Her response was so kind – that really I shouldn’t and that she always enjoyed reading.

Over the days that followed I really got to thinking about my blog. It has been easy to push it to the side lately with a new job for both me and Corey, an online TpT business that is booming during this busy time of year, giving the majority of my energy to 20 littles each day, re-focusing on my fitness, and being a good friend, daughter, fur-mom, and wife each day. I started by telling myself that I would take a couple weeks off while we got adjusted to our new jobs and it has been really easy to just push it to the side each week. And to be honest, I’ve hardly missed it at all.

This realization made me pretty sad because this blog has done so much for me over the past three (almost four) years. I wrote my first post at the time I was giving notice in my very first teaching job to move to New Jersey and the stress of leaving my job, my friends, and my family was weighing so heavily on me. It kept me grounded as I got settled into a new place and made me feel, as cheesy as it sounds, that I had some great friends that I was taking with me. It was so cool to connect with other brides-to-be during Bridal Talk Tuesdays and to share all of our wedding planning details. I was inspired in my outfit choices and home decor and journaled my favorite restaurants in NYC, shopping finds, new recipes, and just the ins-and-outs of what I was up to on a daily basis. It was really all about the connections being made and building friendships that withstood being moved around to follow Corey’s job.

Because this blog has been so good to me in so many unexpected ways, I find myself feeling really guilty for abandoning it (and my connections with some of you, consequently – albeit unintentionally.) When I first started blogging, I loved reading fashion blogs because the outfits were all so original and inspiring. I loved reading about finds other girls had made when they went shopping. Now, my blog feed is littered with one hundred different posts featuring the exact same camel Tory Burch bag or crazy outfits marked c/o that I would absolutely never wear in public. I feel like blogging has turned in to such a business. I hardly ever see anyone posting about some amazing and unique bag or pair of shoes they found and I’m pretty sure half of the outfits I see are only making my newsfeed because the blogger is being paid to endorse them.

This makes me so sad and it makes me love this blogging community so much less. I have absolutely no problem with sponsored posts, referral links, or bloggers making a little extra money when they are endorsing something they actually love and want to share with others. I see so many comments on Instagram with liketoknowit links where girls are asking where an item is from and the blogger is just replying to tell them to check liketoknowit. I think it is awesome that advertising money is being spent by putting the products in the hands of actual real people (bloggers) but it makes me so sad to see girls refusing to share and trying to rack up every last cent. I really miss the connections and friendships and sharing ideas that used to be what blogs were about.

I do very much miss the blogging community, even if it isn’t what it used to be, so hopefully I’ll be back soon. What are your thoughts on blogging becoming a business?