Today marks the three-year blogoversary of my time in this space. Almost three hundred posts later, I ponder what this blog means to me. I started this blog in an effort to deal with my father’s passing. When he passed, a large part of me couldn’t fathom a world without him in it. As I started to talk about what happened to him and the details surrounding his loss, I noticed I didn’t have much of an audience. Mortality is not discussed. Illness and death are certainly not enticing topics for conversation. The other roadblock that I experienced was this: Unless the person you are talking to has lost a parent and/or knows the gravity of home hospice, they are not going to really get the magnitude of your loss. It is nobody’s fault. Certain people are catapulted into crisis earlier, rather than later. My experience with my father left me with a gaping hole to explore and the people around me were unable to really help me. That is how this blog was born.
And three years later, this blog is not only an extension of me, but a living and breathing part of me. Tomorrow also marks my sixth year anniversary of leaving behind my legal career and my decision to pursue writing as a full-time gig. It is scary to abandon a career that you spent most of your life pursuing and building for an artistic pursuit that has very little to offer in terms of a guarantee. I’ve been working on my memoir over the last year and more than once I’ve doubted myself, felt a lack of self-confidence, and questioned whether I needed to go back to my legal “roots.” There are days that I don’t really feel like a writer and other days when I dread answering the cocktail party question, “What do you do?” The truth is that I could spend the rest of my life writing this memoir and it may never grace the bookshelf of a single place in the world.
Despite the doubts and the very real lack of revenue, I still write and blog. For the most part, it has to do with my very loyal readership – my family (my mom gets worried if I haven’t published a regular blog post and calls me to make sure I have one in the works), friends, writer buddies, and this blogging community, including Do Six Figures. If it weren’t for all of you, there would be days that I would abandon my dream and give up. But the moment I entertain that thought, I receive a heartfelt comment on-line, an off-line email about how much a certain post meant to someone, or the occasional, “I really love reading your blog.” Those words are my revenue. They gratify me in ways that I can’t explain.
On this third year blogoversary, I thank all of you. For reading. For commenting. For sharing this space with me. You have my eternal gratitude.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
I want to wish you a happy third year blog anniversary! I found salvation in my blog when I was going through grief after losing my dad and then my mom. It’s been a rough road to travel. I have found this blog community to be supportive and inspiring. So happy I met you here. You have extended your kind words and support and I love reading your blog. Your writing resonates with me and your beauty shines from within. I hope all your dreams come true. Continue to write and follow your passion. xoxo
Happy Blogoversay! I’m a week behind you on three years. The fact you live and breathe writing says what writing is all about…the heart. Making a living from it is just the icing on the cake. The majority of writers would continue regardless of the revenue because it’s what we do. It’s a passion. I’m getting closer to some of my goals, but still even if nothing becomes of it at least I’ve enjoyed it.
Congratulations, Rudri! (I think we started at almost the exact same time.)
I love how you said that your readers’ support is your revenue. I cannot think of a better way to say that.
I can relate to everything that you wrote — not having enough friends who can understand, doubts about career, struggles with a memoir, struggles with continuing with blogging…and that is a big reason I am grateful to have your blog to come to. More than once I’ve clicked over here and thought, “I was just thinking about this this week!” or “I was thinking about writing a post about this too!”
It is easy to doubt oneself. I’ve gone through this over and over since I started blogging… at times I’ve wondered whether my voice really matters and then, like you, I get a well-timed message from a loyal reader and even if it’s just one person, it makes such a difference! At those times I have to remind myself to think as a reader, and not as a writer. How would I feel if my favorite bloggers or writers stopped writing? I’ve also found writing to be incredibly healing.
Anyway, I find such serenity in your blog. Your words make me think, and I feel like I’ve walked into a warm and peaceful home when I visit.
I appreciate the kind of things like leaving job & embrace something which is more challenging. You can be anything and do whatever you want in life……dare!!!
Happy Blogoversay! Time flies!!
-Scarlett.
Happy anniversary! I truly love reading your words and am happy to have found your blog via SITS. Keep writing!
Yes, indeed, keep writing. There are lots of us out here that use your blog as a vehicle to stay in touch and communicate with you. Our lives are extremely busy but taking a few minutes to read your blog are a few minutes that I look forward to each time. It is one of the few escapes that I have to sit back, think and reflect at a different level. Miss you…. – Tony
We’re cheering you on Rudri!!!!!! So proud of you!!!!!!
Happy 3rd Anniversary, Rudri! It’s interesting to me how many bloggers start the journey into blogging to heal from a hurt, or fill an empty space. And I’ve always known that writing is cathartic. I’m so glad to have gotten to the end of your post today and discovered you’re going to continue. I, too, find your posts enlightening and uplifting. Wishing you continued joy as you send your memoir out into the world.
Thank YOU for being here, in this space!
Happy 3-year Anniversary! It takes a lot of courage to leave a career to pursue a passion. I hope you will continue working toward your dream and I also hope your memoir will find its way onto the printed page one day.
It has been about six months since I started reading your blog. I love to come here. Your writing often touches my heart. You are so open and honest with your feelings. Your writing is beautiful and inspirational. Thank you 🙂
Congrats on your three years, Rudri. It’s amazing how our perception of writing online changes – from self-expression or experimentation or purely personal examination to something else, when we realize people are reading.
It’s not a bad thing! But I think we all shift, circle back, shift again, and reassess what and how and why (and for whom) we’re doing it – especially as most of us are doing it for zero pay, not to mention, incurring some costs in the process.
What we learn is so vital. The community, likewise. I’m glad to have discovered you.
Happy Anniversary!!
Happy blogging anniversary, Rudri! Sorry I missed this last week. I also love what you say about your readers as revenue. How perfect! xo
Yeah for Rudri! I always feel peaceful after reading your blog.