A Bee's Life: Seal Edition

I'll admit I've drafted a couple of (slightly inferior) versions of my "A Bee's Life" post over the last couple months but with almost 5 months of 'bee bloggin' behind me...I finally feel like now is right. Plus, Magic's fabulous post yesterday totally inspired me. I love that lady.

So, my dearest and most wonderful hive, let's do this.
 
How Did I Find Weddingbee?
I came across the 'bee pretty early into our engagement while researching save-the-dates. I can't be sure of my exact Google search terms...but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something along the lines of "awesome save the dates" Yeah. I am that person who uses arbitrary adjectives in my interweb searches.

Anyhoo. Whatever the silly search terms were, my interest was piqued by Mrs. Pomegranate's awesome save the dates. I didn't quite understand why she called herself Pomegranate though...or why anyone else referred to themselves by goofy names but I bookmarked the page nonetheless.

I kind of forgot about the 'bee for a couple of months but Google eventually led me back to one of Mrs. Scissors' posts. This time, I was determined to figure the site out. After a couple hours of research, I discerned that the monikers were alter-egos and that you had to fight tough odds to earn a name and be accepted as a Bee. Fight odds? Write? I was in!

My Application Story
I started my blog, as many others before me, for the purpose of applying to be a Weddingbee blogger. Though I majored in Creative Writing in college and was the Editor of my high school's literary magazine, I simply fell out of writing after school. During that unfortunate gap, I incessantly felt as though a big chunk of my brain (and even cheesier - my heart) wasn't being utilized. I missed writing and blogging helped fill that dark void. Plus, I was getting amazing feedback from friends and family on Facebook, so I figured I was doing something right.

After reaching the 8-months-to-go mark, I sent in my application. I found the "A Bee's Life" series right after (seriously, like 20 minutes after) I sent in my app and I'll admit that some of the other entries fuh-reaked me out. My application was a simple 1-page word document—no photos, no seven paragraph responses, no color (no amazing song parodies).

I held my breath for four weeks and eventually convinced myself that blogging for my intimate following on my own blog was fulfilling enough and that once my rejection letter came...I wouldn't cry.

Then, something amazing happened. As I mentioned in my intro post, I was watching TV one weekday morning when the acceptance e-mail from Pengy showed up in my inbox. What I didn't mention was that this was a few days after Mama Seal's scary emergency surgery and that the much-needed good news still nearly brought me to tears.

My Advice to Potential Bees
I agree with others that the quality of writing is key. That's not to say your grammar and spelling has to be perfect, but your topics should be thought-provoking and your voice should be engaging. Writing for an audience is like giving a speech or presentation - picture everyone naked. Errr, I mean...don't let them fall asleep!

Write at least 3 TIMES A WEEK and have at least 15 entries. Seriously dudes and dudettes - your blog will most probably get overlooked if you don't meet the minimum requirements, so meet them!

Also, this is solely my opinion, so take it for what it's worth: put more time into making your blog amazing than into writing a groundbreaking application. When the day is done, your interesting blog entries will speak much louder than your 45-slide power point presentation. (I'm not knocking PP presentations - I'm just sayin...) Oh, and I could be wrong, but I often wonder if Pengy and her application crew would seriously even read a 15-page application when they likely have many others to read through.

Being a Bee
I'm going to be in honest - blogging for the 'bee has totally psyched me out. I sometimes feel my posts are unworthy of being presented as reading material for this spectacular community and have let this occasionally get the best of me. I'm learning to accept that not every post is going to blogger's gold, but the stage fright takes some getting used to!

On the flip side, the members of this warm community (you awesome hive members and my fellow blogging bees) are warm, welcoming and amazingly supportive - and I am loving every minute of this blog journey. Every comment I receive, even those in disagreement with me, are absolutely welcome and I am so thankful that any of you even take the time to read what silly ol' Miss Seal has to say! I wish I could invite each and every one of you to be a guest at the Seal wedding, but I suppose recaps will have to suffice ;)