Hi Steemians!!
With bloggers at a dime a dozen these days, I often ask myself why? Why am I blogging. Why do I take the time to build and maintain a website, why do I work so hard to build a public profile. Why spend so much time on social media finding issues to blog on and sharing my daily life. Why open myself, my family and my life up to ridicule and criticism unnecessarily?
this is me on a good hair day.. 😂
I ask myself this daily because in my mind I am nobody special. I don't have a degree, I don't have a stellar career nor am I rich or famous.
I have mostly raised my kids and worked at a few different jobs over the years. I fell into teaching by chance and it sort of stuck. I found out I was good at it and good at working with children. I loved the kids and they loved me. I did not however finish my degree. Life happened. I was disappointed in myself but sometimes life just gets in the way and I realized at some point that it is not something I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life and I have made my peace with it.
photo NOT my own, sourced from FB
So why am I blogging about my 'ordinary life'?
I don't have a list of accomplishments, many of my skills are self-taught and not from a university or a college. I have a penchant for research and learning new things which makes me a 'Jill of all trades' and a master of none and a hobby collector of note. I have tried everything from woodworking and cement work (2 of my favorite hobbies) to beading, painting, mosaics, and loads of things I cannot even remember. Some I was good at and other's I sucked at.....And it is fine. We can't all be good at everything in life.
I have come to realize that having degrees and achieving 'success' in life is very much in the eye of the beholder. To other people that may signify success and to some people it may bring satisfaction that they have 'achieved' something in life. However, in our materialistic world where accomplishments and achievements are the way to measure one's place in society I have come to the conclusion that having degrees and accomplishments in life may or may not afford me a higher status, income, newer car, bigger house etc but it cannot ever replace happiness and being at peace where you are at in life.
I blog, not because I want to show myself as better or having achieved more than others. I blog because as an ordinary person, an ordinary mother, an ordinary woman, an ordinary wife, and ordinary daughter and an ordinary friend; I have a story to tell.
With the blogging comes my photos. Another passion, amateur photography at best, but a passion nonetheless. I've learnt, that it doesn't matter. I can get the accreditation at any time. What matters is that I am living my passion.
I might not have degrees; only a few diplomas and certificates together with my 1/3rd of my teaching degree, hidden away in a drawer yes, but that was yonks ago. Everything else I have learned has been through living life. I have learned through my children, my friends, my colleagues, my parents, my husband, my surroundings.
I started blogging to create content for my website and 'womaning101' app which I created myself from scratch and the blogging sort of became a part of me. I never at the time thought that three years later I would still be at it but here I am.
It doesn't matter who you are, what you do or what you have accomplished in the world's eyes. WE ALL have a story to tell. A happy one, a sad one, an educational one, a funny one. It doesn't matter.
An important life lesson: whatever you have been through in life, learnt in life, done in life. It is EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE. Whether it as been obtained at a top university or the university of life, it is something that can NEVER be taken away from you. Would I like a degree and more diplomas? Perhaps. But all in good time. My children's education is more important right now. When they are done it will be my turn again.
So even though these days you'll find a blogger under every stone, you'll find me there too. Sharing titbits of my life, unasked advise and wisdom, some laughs, some adventures and I hope you will enjoy the ride.
Credit to Karolien de Kock from @karolienthereslifeafterkids
Visit my website www.karolien-thereslifeafterkids.com where you can follow my blog by subscribing to it 😊