The importance of blogging

Reading an interview with #altac blogger Liana Silver got me thinking about the importance of blogging in my life. I first started to blog in June 2006. Life was pretty good: I was nearing the end of my second year of my PhD, was finishing up a stint as president of our graduate history society, my comprehensive exams were around the corner, and I had research trips to look forward to. I took to blogging right away, writing 19 posts that first month. I continued to blog regularly for several years. Eventually, my site turned from an entirely personal chronicle to one focused on the local music scene. It happened gradually, without any planning, because indie music became an important part of my life.

At the same time, my dissertation and grad school in general started to lose their appeal. I’m someone who likes accomplishments—there’s nothing better than crossing something off a to-do list—and dissertating was a slog. I collected an enormous number of documents and simply had go through them, take notes, and slowly put things in order. Only then could I even think about writing. I’m not sure I realized it at the time, but blogging gave me that sense of accomplishment I needed. Every time I clicked “Publish” was a little celebration.

Over time, and especially as I morphed into a music blogger, amazing things started to happen. Suddenly, strangers were reading my blog! I started a Google Group to keep my readers informed of my weekly concert listings posts, and hundreds of people subscribed. Then hundreds more joined my Facebook group. Tyler Wade, a fellow local music lover, convinced me to do a podcast with him. Over the next two years we produced 50 of them, all featuring songs by Toronto bands. I’d been to fewer than 5 concerts in my entire life prior to 2007; soon, I was going to hundreds a year, covering major music festivals as an accredited member of the press, contributing pieces to other blogs and websites, and being hailed as “one of the unsung heroes of the Toronto music scene.” Nuts.

There’s much more to write about all this, but needless to say, blogging, and everything that came out of it, was incredibly important to me. My indie life was empowering, the opposite of being a grad student. I try to remember this as I transition from PhD student to working professional. The memory of that earlier transition from shy student to local music expert gives me great hope. Back then, I simply followed my passion. I should do the same thing now.

Photos by John Papamarko and David Waldman.