I recently experienced that moment every blogger both hopes for and dreads: discovering that people you know are reading your work. It started when someone asked my sister if she knew about my blog. “Yeah, I knew the day she created it, lol,” she replied. My immediate reaction? Horror. OMG. The realization that my sister’s friends were reading my posts sent me spiraling into a web of insecurities and self-doubt.
Was my writing good enough? Did they like it? Was it even worth sharing? Are they making fun of it?
I had to take a step back and process something fundamental: writing on a public page means people are going to read it—and some of those readers will inevitably be friends and family. Despite using my own name for the website, I’d somehow convinced myself I could maintain a degree of anonymity by never officially announcing it to my extended circle.
This blog is my personal corner of joy, and I’m proud of it. Everything I share here is content I’d be comfortable discussing with friends and family anyway. I’ve always been intentional about maintaining boundaries between my online presence and private life. The majority of my content focuses on work, personal thoughts, and opinions rather than intimate details about my family and personal relationships.
Finding that balance—the fine line between sharing too much and not enough—has been crucial. Out of respect for my immediate family’s privacy, I don’t share their photos here, limiting visual content to friends who are aware of the blog and consent to their photos being on here, and extended family members who’ve given their consent.
It’s still a bit weird knowing that people I know in real life are reading these posts. But maybe it’s exactly what I needed—a reminder that sharing our thoughts can bring us closer together.