On Reaching Out to Other Bloggers

I sometimes wish to myself that all my blogger friends and I can move to the same city and live in rows. We'd all have pretty houses and do art projects together and bake lots of cookies and then kick our own butts to keep them skinny (thank you pinterest). But since I can't live in a place with all my friendly bloggers I'll settle for connecting through blogging. When I first started venturing outside my comfort zone I was daunted by the idea of reaching out to others. I thought to myself (about multiple people) that they had too many followers and there's no way they'd want to hear from little me. But that's just silly. It delights me beyond belief when I have a fellow blogger write me an email and I know I'm not the only one! These ladies have no idea I'm about to write about them on my blog... hahaha. Just kidding ladies! It's all good, you'll see.

The very first blogger I ever reached out to was Erika at Chambanachik. I stumbled onto her blog randomly. And I'm a sucker for "about me" sections. If you don't have one on your blog get one because it annoys me when I can't read them. Seriously, it's the first thing I read. I love to learn about people. I'm studying psychology with an emphasis in human behavior in college right now. But I digress. Erika has a "History" tab on her blog that instantly captivated me and after reading every single post in it (this post in particular broke my heart just a little) I felt the urge to reach out to her. I had been through something similar and yet so different from Erika and I wanted to talk to her, to connect with her, and to thank her for her honesty over such painful subjects. So I did. At first my thought was, she has so many other followers, my email couldn't possibly mean anything. Then she wrote me back saying it was the hope of touching someone who needs it (like me) that keeps her writing her honest words. In its own way, my email helped us both.

I found Kris at The New Normal through Erika's blog. She is one of the nicest people I have met through blogging. She probably doesn't know this but I actually read her blog for a while before I started commenting. (Sorry Kris- I was a stalker!) I found their story so sweet and sincere, I just couldn't help but read it. I'm not kidding when I say I cried reading this post about Kris and her husband surprising the kids at school when he came home a few days early from his YEAR long deployment. Seriously, is there anything better than a family reunited? And so I read Kris's blog without really saying much because she was one of those bloggers that you read and you think how wonderful they are but they couldn't possibly want you to bother them. As it turns out,  we've become good friends and she's one of my new pen pals. She's still my military wife inspiration for making it through a year with two children and a far away husband. I dread the day I have to do it myself, but when I do I know I will have her (and of course others) for support. And that makes me feel so good.


The last blog friend I want to share about is Megan at And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. Megan's another of my blogging idols. I've been reading her for a while but we only recently started connecting beyond simple comments and responses. At first glance you just see another cute blogger (and she definitely is cute). But Megan is one of those that writes about reality. She wrote one post in particular that's stuck with me where she opened up about her struggles with depression. She writes the truth. She's honest with herself and she's honest with her readers. And that is one of the things I LOVE about Megan. And now that I've gotten to know her on a more personal level I love her even more.


Are you seeing a trend here? I try to be open and honest on my blog. As it turns out some of the best blogger friends I've made do the same thing. Coincidence? I wish that I could go on and on because TRUST ME these are definitely not the only bloggers I've connected with, there are so many (you know who you are) and I love every one of them. These are just a few of my examples of why you should reach out to the people who touch you. Every time I write about something that's hard to write about, something that's painful, or something that's just unpleasant I think maybe I shouldn't write it. But that's not real life. And every time I share something painful I get responses from others that I've helped or influenced, simply from being brave enough to share my story. None of us is happy all the time. None of us has a painless story. And that's why I blog. To share my story.


And since I can't leave you with a picture-less post, I'll share my baby. I left the room for maybe two minutes and this is what I came back to today. That's his "It wasn't me, Mom" face. It gets him out of a lot of things.