Merci

Although I love blogging and this style of writing, there are days when it's discouraging. I only have 28 subscribers. My daily hits remain fairly low. Sometimes I wonder if the only people who actually bother to read this are my mother and mother-in-law. Even the hubby doesn't subscribe (of course, I guess since he usually co-stars in my blog posts, he doesn't really need to read them. I mean, he was there).

It especially rankles when I see other bloggers out there getting more traffic, more likes and comments and shares, but their writing is complete crap. We're talking "I was a better writer than that when I was in 4th grade" kind of writing. We're talking, "Are you sure English really was your first language?" kind of writing.

What are these people doing that I'm not? The goal of a writer is to create something that people want to read. Am I really only relevant to 28 people in this world, about half of whom I'm related to by blood or marriage?

Spending hours editing photos, agonizing over which ones to publish, trying to write a blog post that's long enough to give you a good idea of what's going on without boring you to death...it takes time, and energy, and an amount of patience that I don't actually possess. There's been more than one day in which B has had to pour me a glass of wine and say, "Just put the computer/tablet down."

Is it worth it? I often question whether I'll continue the blog when I get back to the U.S. It's just too much effort to put in, and I'm afraid once I get home I'll have nothing to say except for, "I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to go back."

But then this week, I received an email from my cousin-in-law, asking me if I'd be willing to offer blogging advice to a friend of hers who is moving to Australia and would like to start a blog. She and her friend are both subscribers, and apparently big fans. I believe her exact words were, "We both...get really excited any time you post something new. Seriously it's like small children excited."

Seriously? Someone is excited when I post something new? Like small-children excited? And someone thinks I am in some way qualified to offer advice? That blew my mind. To Taylor and Heather, thank you. You gave me a boost and restored my motivation when I most needed it. You'll never know how much it means to me.

I also wanted to say thank you to the rest of you. Thank you to those of you who have diligently followed along from the very beginning. Thank you for tolerating my posts even when you probably want to slap me because you're stuck at work in the U.S. and I'm off at some monument or castle or wine tasting again. Thank you all for your support and love and encouragement. The life of a writer (especially an unpaid writer) isn't an easy one by any means, but thank you for making it feel worthwhile.

xoxo,
E