It’s crazy to think that our blogs will go on forever. At some point, there has to be a “The End “.
It was only recently that I came to understand that very feeling. The feeling that letting it all go was better than letting it go down the tubes.
People quit for different reasons, I know. There are those who simply don’t have the time anymore, those who experience negativity and sour to the platform and those who need a better, more private place to write. And a dozen reasons more, I suppose.
My very dear friend just wrote her final post today. She and I began blogging within weeks of each other and have been close now for over a year. We’ve talked on the phone, taken a trip to the zoo, and met just a year ago for a day at Pier 39. We have sent gifts, Christmas cards and pictures of our kids. We’ve become friends and a part of each other’s lives - 3,000 miles away- just from meeting online. An amazing gift. And if you know her, you know just how lucky I am.
I knew this day would come for her - in fact, I worried and stressed over it. I can remember asking her about it months ago. As I confessed to her yesterday, I think I was having some “blog abandonment” issues - and still am. There is no logical reason for me to feel this way, I know. We can still be friends. We can still email and chat and visit. So why, then, did I worry? Why, now, do I feel such a sense of loss?
I felt the same way when my cousin stopped blogging about a year ago. That was awful. Not only was she moving away to Japan where we could not easily visit and our phone conversations which were quite regular would be stifled but she was cutting off the only other way I had to be a part of her life. I thought.
After quite a few paragraphs, I’m not sure where I am going with this post but my feelings were so strong - my reaction so tangible- that I had to write it out.
So there you have it. An ending.
And I’m not real sure what to do with that either.
I haven’t formed any relationships that are quite as strong as the one you wrote about, but I’m sure when I become more accessible (as in, not living in Italy), that will come. Though, I feel the same way about not blogging anymore. It will be as if I’m abandoning a community, cutting ties with people that I once knew and cared about. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop blogging. At least I won’t be able to not read blogs.
I’m not sure what to do with that, either. And it’s all your fault. You introduced me to her, and now what. Now she’s gone. At least you had the opportunity to know her more and better. You had a whole year. I just had a couple of months - just enough time for me to start to let my guard down a little bit and care a little bit more. So I’m sad, too, and I’m a wee bit green that you had all that time. I’m mad that it takes me so long to feel that level of trust. I’m slow on the uptake though, you know.
You two, though. Your friendship will endure. I just know it.
I think all endings can be sad, no matter what kind they are. The end of a life, for sure, the end of a relationship, a friendship, a neighbor moving, even the end of a good book leaves me a little melancholy. But I have been surprised how deeply I feel the end of someone’s blog. I think it is the loss of a connection with another person.
Um, allow me to be blonde for a moment, but this is NOT an end for you, right???
I can understand the feeling of loss. Blogs are such intimate looks into another’s life & true heart’s desires, that we really get to know one another quite quickly. To lose that, sometimes daily, connection is to leave a little hole inside.
So don’t you dare leave us!!!
Um, did I sound like a total drama queen just now? Sometimes it just seeps out. Sorry.
No, I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me here and where ever else I can lure you to :mischievous:
Hey, I get bummed when certain people don’t post for days let alone knowing they are stopping all together. Not sure there is a support group for this, at least not yet. I’m sure there will be syndrome of bloggeranonymouswithdrawl (BAW). Raehan didn’t leave you cold turkey, she will still email you.
OK, I’m glad you’re not closing down shop too!
I’ve always had a hard time with goodbyes…
It is hard when you get to know someone and then they have to move on. Sorry (((hugs)))
I have to confess I thought at first you were closing up shop too, until I read the whole post. Glad to know you are sticking around.
I know what you are saying. This blogging medium is a crazy thing. I try to tell people who don’t blog about the friends that I’ve made over the internet and they, of course, do not understand how I can value and treasure people I’ve never met. But I do.
Don’t make me get all teary again. I was just getting over it.
You want a confession. A part of me wanted my friends to feel sad that I am leaving. But when I realize that they ARE sad, I feel so terrible and guilty inside that I just want to make it all better immediately. How mean of me to have wanted anyone to be sad. Bad me.
Because really, I don’t plan to abandon any of you, even you Leanne, or you, Gail.
But it’s somewhat selfish, because I want to leave, but I don’t want anyone else to leave.
So you are not allowed to leave, okay? I have blog abandonment issues, too.
You’ve given me a lot to think about. I would terribly miss an awful lot of the people I “know” online if they were to stop blogging. One friend is battling health problems now and hasn’t updated in a month, and that alone makes me terribly nervous, although his family would let us know if something happened. You don’t realize how important these posts, these FOLKS are til you consider what would happen if they left.
I did think it was you going for a moment! Can’t have that! A few I’ve known when I started have gone; it’s so sad when that happenns.
awww… I read her good bye post. I’m sure she will keep in touch. Really I understand where she is at. I had a blog, “Visions Of Ladybeth”. I had to take it down for personal reasons. I went months without blogging, it was hard. But had to be for the time. Now I feel a bit stronger, am able to blog again. You do put yourself out there blogging. Hopefully she’ll find her way back someday. I’m sure your support and friendship will help her do that.
I haven’t exactly quit, but I’m not nearly as frequent as I was before. I don’t blame anyone if they decide to end their blogging career, or put it on hold for a while. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what exactly is the purpose of blogging???? I can live with it, and I can live without it. I’ve found though, that I prefer something inbetween.
If you put an ending to Petroville though, please keep in touch!
i read her last post the other day as well. the past few months four of my regular reads have called it quits. i wonder a year from now, whether i will still have mine, or whether any of the ones i read will still be going. i’m going to miss her blog, always beautifully written, but have to respect her decision for leaving.
Writing about it is the best thing you could have done.
I love that picture of MOTHER & CHILD over at your friends site. It is truly a masterpiece as you are, in the blogshere.
:sad:Well, I read her last post and the one where she said she was going to stop blogging…It made me sad and I’m not even a regular reader, though I wish I had been…
Part of me understands exactly this need to go write without any boundries….sometimes for me it’s not the other bloggers I am worried about it’s someone that might read my words and be hurt by them….So, I do write quite a bit that isn’t on the blog…and it may never be, or then again….who knows?
What a truly wonderful writer she is and I hope that whatever she does will eventually see ‘the light of day’….Thanks MommaK for posting about your dear blog friend….
I know that since I’ve been blogging, I’ve met some really great people and it would break my heart if they left
There are times I feel like my blog has outgrown its useful life. Especially since it is for all intents a purposes my daily journal of my oftentimes less than useful life. The feeling of needing to shut it down and move on is strongest when it suddenly receives a lot of unexpected attention. The need to fill the pages with the dumpings from the inside of my head gets fogged up with a misguided feeling that I need to perform, and it’s all too much to care about.
The nice thing, though, is that thoughts of shutting her down pass nearly as quickly as they float through.
Usually.