Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Blog (10/20/11)
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TITLE: Bloggers Anonymous | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sydney Avey
11/01/11 -
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I started blogging alone at night. The design features on my host site were intoxicating. I stayed up all night choosing fonts, adding icons, sizing photographs and selecting block quotes. I dropped out of soccer. I stopped doing my homework.
My downward spiral began with cheap shots. I’d get ripped about something and dash off a thousand thoughtless words. I wouldn’t even remember what I’d written the next morning. The few friends I had left avoided me for fear they would end up near the gutter on my home page, the subject of one of my poisonous posting. I didn’t care. I was having fun. Anyway I had new friends, faceless bloggers I knew only by their online names -- NastyNell, RanterRay and GotchaSucka. I began to neglect my diet and my appearance, drinking Energy Bull and wearing my pajama bottoms to school.
The bitter end came when I got busted, pulled off the net for inappropriate language. Blogger shut me up when they shut me down. I was bummed beyond belief. It was my English teacher who saved me.
Mrs. Belletristic staged an intervention; flat cornered me in the library stacks! Turns out, she had been a follower on my blog. She confronted me with the un-readability of my text, the mean spirit of my tone and my lack of regard for my audience. She told me that a successful blogger engages the heart and mind of a reader and gives them something of value, like a new idea, a consolation, something to meditate on, an inspiration or a different perspective. Then she suggested I read the works of noted bloggers. It was a sobering experience.
I was blown away by what I read – the exciting prose, the poetic turn of a phrase, the interactivity that clicked me deeper into a subject where I could learn more. I wanted to blog like that!
It didn’t take me long to realize that in order to comment on life I would have to live it, so I cultivated new interests, joined some clubs and made new friends. The time came when I also was posting well researched, tightly crafted 300 – 500 word essays on my beautiful new blog. By the end of the school year, my blog stats were as high as my SAT scores!
Today, I blog responsibly. I shun uber caffeinated beverages in favor of assorted herbal teas but I still wear my pajama bottoms to school. It’s the fashion. See my blog about that.
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Good job. I love the "intervention" by the English teacher.
I cracked up with this line: It was so exciting when Cool Girl would “like” my comment.
You immediately drew me in and held my attention to the very end. I loved the ending, too, by the way and the fact that she still wears PJ's to school. ;) Nice wrap up.
Very creative idea and so well written. I will be watching to see who wrote this and then I will read more of your stories. ;)
This could and should be an article for the "youth" today to read.
Nice job.
God Bless you~