As you may have inferred from the title of this post, I will be discontinuing this blog after this final post. Once I graduate high school, I will be off to college and I will have a lot of things to think about. Although I am sure I will carry my interest in language with me throughout the rest of my life, I think if I decide to blog again in the future, I will mix it up and chose a new topic to blog about. However, it is time for this blog to come to a close and I'd like to take some time out to wrap it up nicely.
What Have I Learned?
There have been a surprising number of things that I have learned during the process of blogging on (Language) Arts + Crafts. The process of writing a blog plost often leads to a bit of web surfing/purusing/researching and doing this has taught me a lot about ideas that puzzled me initially. For example, why does one chose to write a memoir? Just the other week I blogged about my newfound progress in analyzing poetry thanks to my english teacher. As I look back on all the posts I have written (literally I am looking at them right now), I can remember learning something from almost every one, whether it be about mantras, literary devices, translation, advertisements, politics, technology, perspective, even museums. Ok, so that was a bit of a shameless plug for some of my earlier posts, in case you missed them. But, I am being serious that blogging has taught me a lot more than I ever expected.
The experience of writing this blog will help me for years to come. It has helped me better understand what it takes be truly heard on the internet. You cannot simply write a blog and expect people to read it. Like any new product, it must be advertised and made known to people in order for it to take off. Seeing as I plan to major in business in college, this was a key lesson for me. However, this blog is not about business, it is about language. And, while English remains my weakest subject in school, I believe this year I have gained a new appreciation for language, and thus, I have improved in my analysis of it as well.
My greatest wish with regard to language, is for people to appreciate it. Language is essential to our humanity, yet too often people take it for granted. In my experience, fewer and fewer people appreciate great poets, or authors, or lyricists. That is what frustrates me. I already consider this blog a success because it has helped me appreciate language more. But, if this blog has made anyone else appreciate any aspect of language just a tiny bit more than they had, then I will be even more thrilled. Feel free to comment if my blog has had any impact on you at all :]
