Reflections from The Road on the A to Z Blogging Challenge

I’m so excited that we not only completed our first official community project, but that we did it with such flair! The A to Z Challenge was a chance for every- and any-one to share a piece of their own story and possibly reach a broader audience. We are a very specialized community. We tend to have a very specific audience – and that’s okay. Occasionally, we get an opportunity to branch out and “expose ourselves” to people on the outside. It’s a scary thought for some, for others it’s a welcome occasion to create awareness. Either way – my motto remains: “If I can change one person’s mind, or help one person see that life with Down syndrome is NOT the tragedy that they think it is, then everything I do in the name of “awareness” is worth it.” You never know how the ripples play out.

Participants in The Road We've Shared A to Z Blogging Challenge

This is a collage of the pictures from participants in our challenge. You tell me – do any of these wonderful people look like they’re “suffering from” Down syndrome? (I don’t think so.)

In terms of the wider Challenge, I really enjoyed meeting people at the Twitter chats! The moderators did a great job of posing interesting questions and keeping the chat going. I also loved visiting new blogs that I wouldn’t normally have found. The thing with concentrating on a very specific topic like ours is that we tend to read the same things. It’s important to keep up with what’s relevant to our readers. What I didn’t realize that so many other topics apply – in ways we wouldn’t necessarily think of. I’ve made a few discoveries that I’m sure I’ll continue to follow and I’m grateful to the Challenge for introducing me to them. The only thing I would consider changing would be the topics list – directory of blogs. I would like to see a little bit more information about what type of blog it is. I’ll still visit random blogs, that’s part of the fun, but I’d also like to visit people whose interests are similar or who I think might be interested in reading my blog.

Kudos to the organizers of the Challenge! and my own personal thanks to a fabulous community of people that I’m honored to be a part of for supporting this effort!