Yeah Chels! :) Please vote for her… it only takes a second! :)
Last week a friend tweeted this link. It’s a website devoted to college scholarships, and this particular page told of an opportunity for any college student who blogs to win a $10,000 scholarship. I entered the contest on a whim, because, honestly, who couldn’t use $10,000 to pay for school? Today I found out that I’m a finalist. The thing is that the winner is the person who gets the largest of votes. Would you please take a minute to click here and vote for me? My name is the last one on the list (Chelsea Long Chelsea LONG…my married name is still strange to me). Thanks so much for your help.
Here’s the essay I wrote to enter the contest:
“so, woo hoo! this is my first entry in here. i’m kind of excited, but also worried that no one will read my journal and then i’ll feel like i have no friends. but then again, i’m not sure if i want people i know to be reading this. i’ll have to think about it. anyways, the reason why i made this is because first of all, a ton of my friends are getting a xanga site, and i didnt want to be left behind. second of all, i used to have a journal on opendiary.com and then that got to be crappy so i got rid of that.
yea so i guess this will just be my ramblings :) so enjoy!”
-me, October 21, 2003
I started blogging for a public audience 8 years ago because all my friends were doing it. That was back in the heyday of Xanga, AIM, and Kazaa. I talked about my dramatic high school life, used entirely too many emoticons, and got giddy every time my boyfriend commented on one of my blog entries.
Eventually many of my friends stopped blogging. At that point, I kept it up because I liked the comments. It was about attention, seeing if I could make online friends who would read my blog. Or it was about being the entertaining one who could write a funny anecdote, pair it with a picture, and get some laughs.
Somewhere during college I made the jump over to Tumblr. I started to realize that I was writing only for my audience’s response, not for my personal enjoyment, and I liked Tumblr because people couldn’t comment on my posts. It forced me to get back into blogging for myself.
Then I went on the World Race. During this 11-month missions trip, I was required to keep a blog updating my supporters, friends, and family on how ministry was going all over the world. It was through this experience that I realized how much blogging could actually impact the world. By blogging about my daily life of spending time with street children, praying with prostitutes, or living in the bush of Africa, I was able to raise awareness. I was able to bring people into places they would otherwise never get to go. People back home got involved in ways they wouldn’t have otherwise. I had known previously that words have power, but it was one of the first times where I saw my words literally changing lives. It was an amazing yet humbling experience, to be able to use my words in that way.
Now that I’ve returned from my journeys abroad, I continue to blog. I blog to keep everyone back home in Ohio updated on my new life in California. I blog as an outlet for what I’m thinking and feeling. I blog to improve my writing skills. Most of all, I continue to blog simply because it’s a part of me.
I’m Chelsea; I blog.
Again, please click here and vote for me! :)
