Growing Through Blogging

Now that law school is back in full fledged I have to admit I feel a lot more prepared for what's ahead of me as a 2L than a 1L. I have even found time to do some pleasure reading and some independent research on Copyrights and Privacy. I met with my friend and mentor, John Merritt, on Friday to discuss the law and social media. We talked for four hours in Caribou Coffee and I realized how he's a lot like my muse. He helps me organize my thoughts on law so that it's not boring or overly stuffy. He's helping me get ideas for my next blog posts on Social Media Law Student and relate the law back to the everyday business person, twitter follower, stay-at-home mom, etc.

The first and foremost thing when writing any blog post is to know your audience. It's one thing to do tons of research only to realize your audience can't relate and doesn't want to read your blog posts. For example, I began writing this blog to keep my friends and family informed on my daily life while in college. Now, I'm 22 and in law school and my focus of this blog has somewhat shifted. Instead of writing about friends I made and football games, I want to write about topics that make me think. This is both good and bad because my audience expects me to write about my daily happenings (funny people I met in line at the grocery store, riding around on the El and getting lost but finding my way), when I want to write about law, social media, people influencing the world and theories that shape my mind. So I think I am going to re-gear this blog towards both. A little bit of my daily life in Chicago and a little bit of my rants, raves, theories on life, law, social media, and the world we live in.

I have to admit, I love how this blog has evolved. I was looking back at some of my posts from my freshmen year of college and my senior year of high school and I realized how much I have grown, matured, and become a different person. I really love that I kept track of so much of my personal life on the pages of this blog because it reminds me of where I came from, who I am and what my goals are in life. If anyone doubts or wonders the kind my upbringing, who I am or where I come from - this is an open record of my life - the good, the bad and the hilarious.

I was reading back through my blog and groaned at some of the things I wrote about. I wondered if maybe I should delete those posts or make them private so nobody could read them again - or rather, nobody had to read them again. But then I realized deleting those posts would counteract my personal purpose for writing this blog - to learn from my mistakes, laugh at my trivial worries, and be proud of my triumphs. I'm not perfect and I don't claim to be, but I can, will and do learn from my mishaps, my encounters, the people who surround me and the life I lead.

[caption id="attachment_655" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Having fun at Plymouth Bar and Grill after the first week of 2L year"][/caption]