I was born on the prairies with solid ground beneath my feet. From time-to-time, I visited lakes and swimming pools, but there were no oceans any where close to me. Two years ago I visited Florida and for the first time in my life I swam in the Atlantic Ocean. It wasn’t like the lakes back home. I instantly had two reactions:

1. The water was really salty.
2. The water was powerful.

No one ever said I was a genius, but when you have never been in an ocean they both come as a real shock. The waves weren’t as bad as that picture. Actually, they were nothing like it. They were barely anything and they tossed me around like nothing. In the lakes on the prairies it’s fun to fight the waves. There was no fighting those waves in Florida—mostly I tried my hardest not to die.

The past couple of days in the blogging world I have felt a bit like I was being knocked around again by the waves. I have spent a month writing about how we can overcome the traps that lead us to inauthenticity and sub-par writing. Why hasn’t the blogging world already changed? Some times I fall into a trap of believing that everyone is thinking the same as me. I get a little too far ahead of myself. Like when I stopped watching Friends after the third season and a couple years later I was surprised to find it was still on television.

Two different events over the last two days have left me feeling a little battered and wondering one simple question: who am I as a blogger?

Two days ago, I was chatting with a theme developer and we got to talking about Epiblogger and he asked if I would do a guest post. The first thing I said was sure. He told me he would give me a link back to the site—which is almost all I was looking for. There was one more thing I was looking for—will I get credit? He simply replied no. I do not want to be a ghostwriter. This was the first shock out of my puffy idealistic mind. I asked friends—why would anyone want to be a ghostwriter? The obvious answers: money, traffic and money. But it’s so corporate. There is no community or openness involved. There is nothing about what I love in the internet in ghostwriting. Money and traffic is not why I blog, it is not who I am as a blogger—is it?

The second event that shocked me back to reality (which, ultimately, is beneficial) is a post I read today. Some highlights from it include (some hyperbole applied): use one syllables words, don’t make your audience think, offer phonetic spelling of any big words, you aren’t important only the reader is and put the salt-lick in an easy to find place.

After this—and you might be thinking it really doesn’t take much (it doesn’t)—I was feeling a little blue. I was sopping wet, tired and my hair was slowly becoming a delicious salt crust. So what’s the point? Why go on? Because the internet usually finds a way to lift my spirits. I stumbled onto a tribute to Heath Ledger from Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight. It was a very touching piece and one part in particular answered my question:

I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents.

Who are we as bloggers and why do we bother? We do it to explore our talents and ultimately explore ourselves. We are just as much the audience as we are the author. Our blog is just as much for us, as it is for our readers.

Salt is a great spice and too much of it is a bad thing. There are a lot more options out there, just as there is for us bloggers. Try them all. Don’t settle for what works. Try new things and stretch yourself. Go beyond your boundaries and create something that is truly great.

Photo #1 by Sister72 | Photo #2 by andy hayward