Writing, especially in the form of blogging is something that I am very passionate about.

It has been an escape for me, a safe place. I can open up wordpress and instantly be happy. Since the day I started blogging in grade three, it has made up who I am.

Despite how happy it makes me, since that day I started blogging, there have been some times when I have wanted to delete my blog.

You may be slightly confused. Blogging is a place for me to be happy, why the heck would I want to delete it?!

Sometimes people make me forget all the great things about blogging.

One day way back in grade four we were learning about how to make a blog and my teacher pulled up my blog as an example. My cheeks flooding with blood, my heart bursting out of my chest, I couldn’t show it to them.

“Who has a blog? That’s so weird”

“What’s the point of having a dumb blog”

These comments mixed with seemingly blinding glances circled around me. For the first time, I was ashamed of my blog. For the first time, I wanted nothing to do with it.

For a few years after that my blog went undiscovered, and that made me enjoy blogging even more. It was a safe place just for family.

I could write about anything without worrying if I’d be judged.

Now, teachers like to bring up my blog quite a bit. I really should appreciate the love and support my educators show for my writing, but when they announce that I have a blog in class I want to run right out of the classroom.

I feel the eyes staring at my hot face and the comments rising.

This year I was sitting in class working on a paragraph for an English assignment when I heard giggles coming from a group of my friends across the room. I could feel them staring at me. I was later told by one of them that they were all looking at my blog jokingly, not really saying things that made me want to continue writing.

After I heard about this, I froze. All the satisfaction with my writing had disappeared.

“Cringey”

“Dumb”

“Exaggeration”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from them. I wanted to disappear.

I couldn’t just let it go, as many people told me to do. Everytime I opened up my blog I heard all those words like a broken record in my head.

After days of feeling worthless, I realized something.

Why was I letting their useless words get to my head?

Can they write a blog post like I can? Probably not.

Can they say they’ve written on Huffington Post? I doubt it.

I am so proud of my blog, and if you know me well you would know that I don’t say I’m proud of something a lot.

If I let people’s comments get to my head like I did before, I will lose one of the only things I am really confident about.

I decided that every time someone says something I don’t like, I’ll use it as feedback. I’m never going to let a couple irrelevant words take control of me.

There are so many people that actually enjoy my blog. Their comments are the ones that need to take a stand in my head.

I love blogging and nobody can change that.

“Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams.”

-Donovan Bailey