I get envious sometimes. Don’t we all? I think of Lena* and her beautiful family, Sara* and her running skills, Jessica* and the book she wrote, Ellen* and her blog … you get the picture. But since I’m a blogger, I used to get jealous of others’ blogs and their respective audiences, thinking they were better than me or more popular than me or more likable than me. I know blogging in the Internet and therefore not the “real world,” but it’s only natural to want to be liked, even if we’re only talking about the Internet, right?

*I made up all these names. Shhhhh.

Love me?!

I started this blog as a way of keeping up with my family. At first, I updated very infrequently; my blog didn’t have a voice—it was more like a mass email anyway. But as I start finding more and more expat blogs, more Spain blogs, more blogs in general, I began to think about my audience and what they might like to read. I tried to develop a voice. I was in a perfect place to write humorous things about Spain—very cynical, actually, because I was having an immensely difficult time in Spain that year, 2010–2011, even if I only came off as angry. (See: How to Dress like a Spaniard, 15 Rules to Thrive in Spain, Not as Exciting as You Might Think.)

Not-so-angry at a wedding in 2010.

Nowadays, I feel sort of popular at times. I get sweet emails from readers, which I love. I get to interact with a lot of fun people on Twitter. But there are way more popular people, people with prolific readerships, people who seem to get a million comments a day. I think sometimes, How can I be like that? And then I realize …

I’m never going to be like that. I do self-promote, but I’m not a self-promoter. I do try to get more readers, but I don’t think too much about things like SEO, or advertisements, or how to strategically comment on popular blogs so as to garner more readers. I doubt I’ll become an editor at a travel magazine or website; I just can’t see it. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with such things, not at all. Rather, it’s just not me. I’m okay with that. I’m Kaley from Y Mucho Más, and I really believe there are plenty of readers who appreciate that. I don’t need to change. Neither do you, if you don’t want to.

We should all just stay like this. Forever.

Do you ever experience blog envy? How would you like your blog to change (or not change) in the future?