Entry #11 The final goodbye.

So this is it, the last of the blogging for English class.  It has been a real experience for me.  I have blogged for the last 16 weeks and have loved, hated, stressed and enjoyed the process.  Hopefully it wasn't too painful to read most of the time, I really tried to use enough cat pictures to make up for my flaws in writing.

I took this assignment of blogging seriously because I was trying hard to learn how to speak with an audience in a way that seemed at least a little interesting. Hopefully, this plan worked at least a little.  When I first started to blog, I was really nervous.  I just kept thinking that I had nothing to say, no input that could possibly sound interesting.  As the assignments kept going forward though, I found it started to become easier and easier to make a blog entry.  Now at the end, I feel like I might even miss it a little now that its over.

At the beginning I didn't really believe that blogging is really something that is useful, but I think that my opinion has really changed and grown.  Blogging has helped me to be a better writer, I have figured out how to use my own voice, and with the internets capabilities, I can even make my topics entertaining, inspiring, and informative.

I think the biggest challenge of blogging was to be daring enough to open up and share my opinions.  To really put yourself out there for anyone to read your ideas of is not something everyone is comfortable with.  It seemed pretty daunting at first, like, your serious? Oh no, please no.

But I did it, and it changed me.  I learned, and I am happier now knowing I can speak my mind and its not really a big deal.  People might hate it, or agree and maybe even really like what I have to say; all of the opinions are perfectly fine with me.  I have learned that my words are for a particular audience, and that's actually pretty cool. Blogging is definitely something that helps to connect people and ideas on a large scale.  I now really appreciate this and respect the people who can do this successfully and regularly.  Its a really innovative and new way to reach audiences that haven't been reached in the past.

In being a student, blogging has definitly shown me how to really make a blog more than just words.  To be able to learn how to add dimension to the blog itself was really useful for me.  Having the available resources as a student to learn how to "pimp out" my blog really brought up the quality of the entries.  Blogging also helped me to change my approach in my other assignments because it has helped me to move towards using my voice more in my writing.  I can push the limits of academic writing farther by making it more of the style in which I like to write.  It also helped me to understand the diversity of my classmates better.

We are all so different, yet we congregate in the same place to speak about our thoughts and ideas.  It was one of the most enjoyable parts of the blogging process, when I was reading other students entries.  Overall as an assignment for an English class, I do consider blogging a useful tool that should be developed.  Mainly because learning the skill does transfer into the rest of the writing being done in the classroom.  It has been overall a fun experience, and it was nice to share and learn from the process overall.  So thank you for listening, and I wish everyone the best with whats next in life.

Good Luck and Good Bye.

Nicole.