This is a difficult post to write,
as in order to do so,
I must admit many things about myself.
Primarily that I am selfish,lazy and rude.
Throw in disorganised,
and someone who keeps putting things off,
and you have me summed up pretty well.
This can clearly be seen,
in my attitude to Awards.
I love to receive Awards,
and to read other peoples awards posts.
I love to see who else has been nominated,
and to know that others are seeing my blog linked.
However that is where my love for Awards ends.
It can take some time,
to get all those questions asked of me, onto my page,
I then must figure out how to download the award,
and get the logo to appear on my page in the right place.
Hours later,
it is time to actually answer those questions.
As the light fades,
and my will to live is at an all time low,
I must go and try to find my nominees,
and then link to each one of them.
After an eternity, at last the post is ready.
Now for the part I find most difficult,
I must go to the blogs of my nominees,
and confess to each one of them,
that I love them enough to have nominated them.
Which means that I am actually saying,
“Here’s a mountain of work for you to do,
because I really like you!”.
I have on more than one occasion,
acknowledged an Award I was so generously given,
and spent the two days writing the post.
Delighted on those occasions,
I have sat back and breathed a sigh of relief.
Done.
Until guess what?
Within days another nomination arrives!
As I say I am always so chuffed to get an award,
but now when I receive one,
I die a little.
I redden up and I feel sick.
Because it always reminds me,
of all the awards I have sitting somewhere,
dusty and never acknowledged.
The blog buddies I never said an official “Thank you” to.
So I have made a decision.
I am going to say here to everyone,
who was kind enough to send me an award,
“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you“.
I am most grateful you considered me.
I however am not able to remember everyone,
so I cannot thank you all personally.
In the past two weeks,
I got awards from Winding Road,
and Susan Irene Fox.
You two were in effect,
the catalyst for this post.
Thank you, you mortified me into action.
So from now on I think its only fair,
that I will put one of those “Award free blog” logos,
in a prominent position.
It will spare my blushes,
and stop my fellow bloggers,
from feeling I am not a team player.
Instead I have begun to try to give back in a different way.
I am trying to do a weekly post,
called “Freshly Impressed”.
(yes it is a take on the illusive “Freshly pressed).
I pick a few posts which caught my eye,
Posts which might have made me
laugh, cry or think.
Post I believe readers would enjoy,
but might have missed.
I link to them and readers can check them out.
The idea behind it is,
these posts will hopefully get a few new readers,
and they will not have to do any work!
So once again,
I am really, really, truly grateful,
for every single award I was nominated for.
I should have been honest when I accepted them,
and instead of saying,
“Thank you so much”,
I should have followed by saying,
“But I’m sorry I am too lazy,
and with the little time I have,
I’d prefer to write a real post”.
Thank you again.
I hope we can still all be friends!
My thoughts on a page. 
I made the same decision and learned friends are very understanding. Hugs
Thank goodness I am not alone! I felt so ungrateful not writing the acknowledgement posts but I got so far behind. It will be a relief to have posted my confession and apologies.
It’s an overwhelming task and yes, the kindness we feel. Thankfully, we can still voice a kindness without all the work. Hugs
🙂
I know the feeling, I stopped accepting those awards, I started out with good intentions, I did the 10 things about me, I linked to the bloggers, then nominated other bloggers and after receiving eight in the same week I crawled into a corner and died….I just couldn’t keep doing it over and over again so I gave up.
It’s a nice thought and much appreciated but it gets tiresome very quickly.
Ha ha. Brilliantly described. “Crawled into a corner and died”.
Its out there now and although I feel very ungrateful I also think “phew!”.
I love your honesty! I love getting the awards too but that last one was a doozy to write and I was very relieved when it was finished…it sure is a mountain of homework taking away from more interesting posts. But, again…they are pretty fun to receive a little pat on the back.
Every time I read an awards post I so admire the blogger because I know they are so time consuming. Thanks though you do know I was delighted you thought of me!
I love this post!!! I am sure there are a lot of bloggers that feel the same! Awards are a chain mail of sorts. I feel very appreciated when I get an award but like you find it hard to do “my part” in receiveing the award and passing it on. Thanks for saying what I was thinking! I am still pretty new to the blogging world so I will not do an Awards Free Blog just yet – but it is something I’ll keep in my mind for future reference. 😉
When I first say an awards free blog I kind of thought “how rude”. Well not anymore.
It is a good way to learn about other blogs especially newer ones and I do enjoy reading them.
I don’t think it’s rude at all! I feel much the same way. It’s still all so new to me. I’m just trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Tric, as I said before, your honesty and light is enough return for me.
Thanks Susan. How someone as nice as you follows me, amazes me.
I don’t understand the fuss about awards. I’ve been nominated for a couple. Presumably this means I am supposed to do something? I dunno. Don’t care either. Whatever it was I was supposed to do obviously did not get done. Have I therefore committed some blogosphere faux pas? I have no idea. And I don’t care either. Does this make me rude, arrogant, or something else? Don’t know. Don’t care either. Am I here for other people or for myself?
You will be expelled from the blogosphere! No I don’t think you did anything terrible and I guess regardless, you just don’t care! 🙂
Well no, I don’t. But that does not mean that I begrudge others enjoying the awards thingy if they wish.
I just have no personal interest in it.
I do understand that there is the chance that if others nominate me for awards and I ignore the expectations that go with those, then those people might get their noses out of joint… but well – that’s really not my concern either.
You are famous now I see…
Ha ha. Afraid not famous just lazy!
lol..I like your Ireland blog award nomination…
Thanks everyone was so good to nominate me. I am waiting for the announcement of the shortlist but not overly hopeful, but you never know.
I am still loving writing and that is the most important thing.
I’m rooting you on
🙂
I know exactly what you mean. I understand the appreciation and the subsequent procrastination. My nominations have been piling up for months, and although my intentions are good, my resolve is weak. Good for you for making a stand!
I feel so free. I have great respect for other bloggers and am mindful of the effort that goes into preparing that award post and linking your blog. Everyday without fail when I was wondering what I would post I would feel guilty that I was not doing an award post. I still feel bad. I do remember quite a few who nominated me but if I mentioned them and left out others that would be awful. So I did this apology. Not perfect but I had to do something.
It must be a great relief. My awards dog my conscience constantly. I like the way you handled it though. I’m sure I”ll get there eventually.
I’ll be watching and chuckling!
Haha! Thanks for the support.
😀
i totally understand and i am in exactly the same position, though i have not issued my public apology yet. i am so happy to receive them, though i am so horrible in the tech arena it may still take some time to sort out my tasks involved in accepting these. i feel bad knowing they are hanging in limbo and perhaps your post will be the final push i need to take action on these. i think your idea of highlighting other blogs as a way to give back is a wonderful and mindful idea.
I look forward to reading your “apology”. My favourite part about awards was the reading other blog nominations so highlighting other bloggers without troubling them seemed the way to go. I have seen others doing it in different ways and I am enjoying reading during the week now as I have to be thinking “freshly impressed” as I do. It is like my own little private “like” button.
I always thank everyone. It is so wonderful of others to want to recognize fellow bloggers. And the time issue is the only reason I can’t do them anymore. It would, like you said, literally take me 2 days. And people seem to be spot on wonderful about people’s inability to put that kind of time in to it. (Most of us are not full time blogger money earners). 😉
Yes I have come to that conclusion too. And it was necessary to “fess” up and move on. 🙂
Ive seen those awards flying around, i think i even received one but i didn’t know it was mandatory to do all that follow up. I just thanked the person who sent it. I loved your post, your honesty!
Thanks a million. You are lucky you didn’t know what you were supposed to do as it is a lot of work!