Blate (n.) a social appointment or engagement with bloggers.
(not an official Webster’s Dictionary term but I feel like the general blogworld would be in consensus with the definition above)
Since I started blogging *counts years on fingers* EIGHT years ago (wow, time has flown), I’ve been fortunate to meet some amazing people within the blog world! Whether they lived nearby or across the ocean, many of my blog (now IRL) friendships all began with the initial action of someone leaving a comment on the other person’s blog.
It’s one thing I never take for granted, i.e. the time and effort a person makes to 1) read your blog post (like reaaaaallly read, not skim through) and then 2) leave a thoughtful comment that actually addresses what you wrote in your post as opposed to the simply saying “nice photos!” <- Not to negate these kinds of comments because they are valid and just as appreciated as well.
The point I’m trying to make is… Depth.
To me, comments that address or respond what I’ve written are gold.
And that’s because writing is the hardest part of blogging for me. I can filter through and edit hundreds of photos without breaking a sweat. But on the flipside, I have drafts upon drafts of posts with photos in them waiting… Just waiting for me to put words to them because writing doesn’t come easy to me. But I push myself to do it because when I am finally able to put my words together in a creatively coherent way, goodness… It’s satisfying AF.
So when a person comes along and responds to my words, I always make a point to reciprocate by clicking through to the person’s blog, reading their recents posts and leaving an in-depth comment right back. And if I’m lucky, that commenting back and forth continues to the point where I just start typing in their blog URL by heart to check in on them out of genuine interest.
Annnnd that’s how I became great blog friends with the two ladies in today’s post: Disa from The Active Spirit and Valla from Sanniyah Sloan.
Me and Disa go wayyyyy back – I feel like we’ve been commenting on each other’s blogs since back when I first started blogging and was living in NYC?? And I feel like Valla and I really started connecting right around the time I moved to VA and we had met once before when she visited DC for the first Women’s March in 2017.
Both ladies are based in the Atlanta area.
So when Charles and I were planning our trip, I reached out to see if they were interested in meeting up and, with a unanimous “yes!” in response, we scheduled a brunch date at Beetlecat per Disa’s awesome recommendation.
You know it’s meant to be when everyone greets each other with squeals of joy, hugs and what follows is natural flowing conversation and connection.
It didn’t matter that it was a raining outside because there was so much sunshine happening inside Beetlecat with added compliments to the yummy food; doughnuts for appetizers and followed by our main dishes.
I can’t quote you on what we actually talked about. All I know is afterwards, I felt reluctant to leave them wishing for more time and I think they felt the same way because we ended up walking across the street (the rain had stopped by that time) and stood on the corner just talking about everything and anything until Charles texted me “Where you at?” (translation “come home” lol)
Poor Charles, I had left him at our Airbnb and told him I’d be back in two hours… Those two hours ended up turning into three and a half hours lol. I arrived back at our Airbnb with a box of doughnuts in hand and all was forgiven and forgotten with a strong side of no regrets. :)
Soooo looking forward to the next opportunity to connect with blog friends after this whole pandemic situation is resolved. Until then…
xo, Setarra
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