Blogging Blogs #2: ~rAEBackwards

Ah... high school. I remember it well. And when I read ~rAEBackwards, I remember it a little too well.

I've been following the life of this girl, Rae, for a good portion of the summer. This is a personal blog, sometimes VERY personal, so much so that it almost feels like you're reading someone's private journal that you just so happened to come across when it was lying open on a desk or something. It's almost, but not quite, an act of voyeurism.

I think that the biggest reason that I like this blog is that I remember thinking a lot of the same things when I was around 15 or 16. It's a hard age to be at. She discusses things like religion, school, and family and relationship problems a lot. One of the things that really strikes me is how honest and self-aware she seems to be. I've seen other teenagers' blogs, and a lot of them seem to be full of fluff and/or uninteresting whining. But Rae's blog is well-written and smart. It's a fully personal blog, so it's not surprising that a lot of her personality comes out when she writes. You can learn a lot about her life and the way she thinks in a very short time. For an example, take a look at this entry.

As for the looks of her blog... here's another person who uses Blogger, but customized it with a different template. It's simple, easy to read... I almost like it better than my own... She's got a couple of neat plug-ins up at the top left corner: a countdown until Valentine's day and a little message showing how many people are looking at her blog right now. Both are from Nerds On Site. How do I know this? Cuz that's where I got my semester countdown thing. Plug-ins are another one of my favorite things for blogs (which is why I have a bunch of them on my own blog).

It's very interesting to have such an intimate window into another person's life. I enjoy reading about Rae and her friends and all the things she goes through in high school, because they remind me of how I thought at that time in my own life, and why, even though I would never want to repeat it, it was so important in discovering things about myself and life.

(Gee, I talk almost as much about myself in these entries as I do about other peoples' blogs...)