So this is what a hangover is. I don’t remember this picture being taken. Why am I putting this on the internet?
I was eating a PB&J out of tinfoil during class and thinking about blogging, as I often do. I had recently read a friend’s blog that he just started a few months ago and doesn’t update very often. Its future doesn’t look good—a few more months it will likely become another blog corpse silently occupying net space. As I read his first tentative posts, I was reminded of my own blogging beginnings that stretch back to my senior year of high school.
It was a secret blog, called The Drevet (now deleted), and I posted a mere two times. The first one was the obligatory and awkward, “Hello world,” in which it seemed I was preparing to face all of humanity and be utterly rejected. It was the kind of introduction that set the bar so low even I couldn’t reach it. After only two months I stopped thinking about The Drevet and life moved on.
As I continued to reminisce and munch on my sandwich, I stumbled across another phase of beginnings: college. At this point, I suddenly realized the striking similarity between getting drunk for the first time and blogging for the first time.
When I first overindulged, not a moment before I turned twenty one (wink), I was fascinated with the very experience of it. “Wow,” I thought, “so this is what being drunk is like.” It didn’t matter what came next in the evening because we were already having an awesome time through the act of inebriation itself, which was to us was inherently interesting.
In the beginning, I was also captivated by the phenomenon of blogging. The fact I could publish whatever I wanted for strangers to read and maybe enjoy was both thrilling and terrifying. And just as newbies feel awkward around alcohol, like they’re doing something taboo and exciting, I would get nervous in front of the computer screen, staring at the blank blog post box and wondering what I would say to the world. What if someone actually read it?
As a baby lush, I felt the constant need to discuss my level of sloshedness with my fellow drinkers, “I’m not drunk guys,” “Do I seem drunk?” “I’m drunk drunk drunk drunk drunk,” etc. To everyone else this kind of blathering indicated it was time to change conversation partners. The more experienced drinkers had already found out that being drunk is not interesting or special, but to me the topic was endlessly engrossing for everyone and worth repeating dozens of time in the same night.
Similarly, in the first blog posts, I was self conscious about the fact I was blogging and tended to talk about the act itself, how it was hard to think of something to write or that I didn’t think anyone was reading it (no one was), and the end result was that I wouldn’t say anything at all and my predictions would come true. And just like a group of okay friends that get drunk at home hoping for something exciting to happen and then end up going to bed early, I wasted the potential of blogging by using it in a sarcastic and apathetic manner, only to defeat myself in the end.
Through many unfortunate nights and some unfortunate blogposts, I learned the real magic comes with a critical combination of both substance and medium: blogging and content, or alcohol and activities. But like most things, this is the kind of lesson that one must learn through their own experience, though we hope for our own sakes that newcomers learn it before anyone heads to the bathroom to vomit.
And my metaphorical vomiting days aren’t over yet. I will always be learning both how to drink better and how to blog better.
Snotting black 
I love this. I was guilty of getting defeated. But i am trying to get better.
[…] of a year of blogging: Being Freshly Pressed twice (here and here), meeting awesome members of the blogosphere, re-discovering my love of writing, and using the term […]
It -is- difficult to get into but I think in the end the key lies with writing down what interests you, rather than worrying anyone reads or doesn’t read. Doesn’t matter. You’re blogging because you care and have a story to tell, right? 🙂
I haven’t been blogging very long just yet but I intend to improve my drinking too. By reading and commenting and learning from others. Bottoms up!
I’ll drink to that! Good luck with your bloggety blog blog blogging.
Thanks, you too! 🙂
I loved this post so much I shared it with my blogging FB group. We’re mostly new, so this was really nice to read. I like your style, I’ll be following you in the future so I can keep up with my good things!
Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the best with your blogging!
That was incredible. Gives me that aura- especially to a newbie bloger like me!! 🙂
Glad you liked it—hope you keep on blogging!
Somehow this seems inspiring! I am still in highschool, just looking for a future in music journalism. I just started the blog, and it takes alot to realize that for awhile I’m not going to have viewers, but if I quit I never will!
Thanks! I’m not the only one!
(P.S: Please at least check me out! One more view would be nice)
XoXo Radium Rollercoaster
You just gotta keep at it–good luck and don’t stop!
Thank you 🙂
XoXo Radium Rollercoaster
[…] This One’s for All the Bloggers Out There @ Snotting black […]
I feel the hangover.. 🙂
Oh the pain.
Oh dear me, I agree with you. I have a secret blog, and now this not so secret blog. as drinking goes, it was never a secret at all. 😉
There’s a sign on the forehead that marks us I think.
Keep going!
I’LL NEVER STOP!
Great line, “All facts have been removed for your safety” ! and good article. If you’re really feeling gamy, you might get a smile out of my “blog” titled THE ULTIMATE CLASS B MOVIE MONSTER… ( noulteriormotive.com ) It’s about the word BLOG, which I hate.
I am not a fan of the word blog either….going to your site now to find out why you hate it. I hate it because I feel like it makes me sound like a middle schooler.
Well said!
And it had to be said.
The perfect read for me since I just started my latest blog here less than an hour ago. You’re right….finding the perfect blend and balance of content and alcohol takes time. You can’t rush these things.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a few more times: it’s a marathon not a sprint. Good luck!
Not to be mean, drink till you knock out is the best sleeping pill EVER!
http://mind4intellect.wordpress.com/
Okay, that seems about right.
My blogging habit is akin to feast or famine. I like reading thought-provoking material, but generally just moan and whine on mine. Or forget to post at all.
Forgetting to post—-blasphemy!
Haha I know, I started out vowing to blog daily. It seems I set the barre too high.
Not at all—that’s a great goal! You’ve heard the saying “no one rises to low expectations.”
That is true.
I’m in this position now,trying to come up with something to blog about. My mind seems to go blank. I know their are plenty of things to blog about ,until I try to start and I don’t have a clue.(no I don’t drink) lol
Just write write write until you find something. Doesn’t matter what you write about just don’t stop.
Thanks! I’m going to keep trying!
I didn’t realize you were freshly pressed with this one. Way to go!
I still can’t believe it. Thanks!
Great read! Thanks!
No prob, bob!
[…] This one’s for all the bloggers out there […]
I really love this post, I pretty much had the same experience with blogging only it started when I was 14 or so. I had a different drinking experience and often didn’t want anyone to know I was drunk or drinking when I was even though I was of age at the time.
Some are secret drinkers and some are secret bloggers and some are both and some are none.