My blog is my own personal pool diary. I used to have a written diary for my pool tournaments, but when the internet came along, I starting blogging my thoughts.
At first, I kept my blog private.
Then, I opened it up, but just became careful what I said or how I said things or didn't use real names as I had when it was private.
Then an acquaintance suggested I open up more.
"What did you mean by 'My Mom was sick,'" He asked me.
"With what? For how long? Why be vague?"
I slowly opened up more because of his suggestion. Now I truly love being more open and "honest." And it turns out, being more open has led to other players resonating more with my experiences.
I also learned along the way that if I don't have the balls to say something directly to someone, I will either NOT write about it at all, or I will try to disguise who I am talking about.
But what has been most rewarding about writing down my experiences is: (1) it helps me mentally in tournament to review past articles, (2) my blog has helped others or they can relate, and now (3) I'm meeting new people because of my blog!
I have heard so much over the past few years players saying they can relate to what I write about.
I go through SO much at tournaments and league, I literally have a current list of topics I still have yet to write about.
I write all the time because I love to get my thoughts down in my pool diary (journey).
What has been super cool is, for the past 6 months, people have introduced themselves to me because they have read my blog. Not everyone comments on the blog entries online and for the longest time, I never even knew if anyone else read it, lol. That was okay as the blog is for me anyway, but when about 6 people recently approached me saying they like my blog and look forward to my posts, it really made my day!
Just the other day a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a couple of years said he looks every morning to see if I've written a new article. I was like, "wow, really?"
It really meant a lot to me when he said he can relate to most of what I write about.
And to meet new people all the time who love the game of pool as much as I do, and now we are connecting because they read my blog, HOW COOL IS THAT??
I sometimes wish I would have started blogging about pool when I was just beginning entering the pool world - talk about learning experiences! But, I already feel like I kinda started "back to playing" a couple of times already in my life.
It tickles me to know I have "readers" and when YOU come up to me say hello and mention my blog, it means the world to me.
To all my online friends, yes you, THANK YOU!!
And just recently I received two emails about my blog. Here's me sharing again:
"I found a link to your blog off the AZ Billiards website. I'm glad I did.
Just like to let you know I enjoy your blog. I mostly keep up with your current stuff but have went back and read some of the older material too.
I recently got back in to playing pool after about 20 years off (kids and all). Playing in a competitive league and enjoying it.
Keep up the writing."
And:
"I rarely look at your blog but stumbled over to it today. We think alike on some of the stuff you blog about. I would never have the guts to be so open about it. That is probably the M/F thing, dunno. Keep on keeping on, I'll bet many people get a lot from it. How is the table playing? I read about it in the blog."
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