Self indulgent?

I am starting this "blog thing" and wondering if it isn't a bit self-indulgent. I have always kept a journal / diary and secretly hoped that someday--after I died, of course--it would be discovered, published, and widely acclaimed as one of the most original and insightful texts ever put to paper. I have a sneaking supsicion this dream results from an early obsession with the Diary of Ann Frank.

It seems to me that a blog is nothing more than a public journal. Rather than waiting for the world to discover me, I am thrusting my thoughts and my words into the public. Self indulgent? Probably not. Horrifying? Definitely. I dream that my diary will be found after I die because the thought of someone reading it and NOT thinking that is anything short of spectacular, while I am alive to hear the criticism, is nothing short of crushing. Putting those words out there for the world to see, and hoping that the world will see, is scary. But how will I learn if I don't put the words out there? How will my mind expand to hold the world's thoughts if I don't let others bounce their thoughts off mine?

When all is said and done, I think keeping my journal secret and personal is self-indulgent. The blog seems to me to be quite the opposite.