Eleven Years Down

I seem to be obsessed with numbers lately, which makes sense because I just finished up another November of counting words. As much as I love National Novel Writing Month, it saps so much of my creative energy creating a world, and characters, and interactions, and then keeping track of the words, striving to get over the 50 thousand word threshold that is daunting every year, even after doing it seven years in a row.

And this morning I got an announcement from WordPress that I signed up for an account eleven years ago today. I don’t recall much about 2007 (I had a one-year old back then. You can feel me.) but I do remember wanting to have an escape, a way to get down my feelings. Funny how I didn’t actually start a personal blog back then. I’m guessing it was good enough just to say I had an account.

“So, you writing lately?”

“I got a WordPress account.”

“Cool, man.”

It was the idea of the account, I guess, the chance to say that I was a blogger (even though I wasn’t). But what WordPress did for me back then was it gave me something to come back to, when I was ready to really start a blog. Of course I had to remember my password by then, but I figured that out with time as well.

Yeah, eleven years was a lifetime ago, and I’ve created five blogs since then, with I can’t remember how many blog posts. I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made. As I’ve gotten older it’s fun to sift back through the numerous posts and remember when I was a certain age, and remember what I was feeling back then, what I felt was important enough for me to post. Sometimes I laugh because of how much I’ve changed. Sometimes I cry because of how much some things never change. Sometimes I just sit here and smile because whatever it was, it has always been an outlet for me.

Then, of course, five years ago I started this particular blog. Little did I know back then that it would be what I was waiting for all those years before when I created the WordPress account. I am so grateful to be able to have an outlet, to be able to have an audience, to hopefully help other people as I have helped myself through getting these words out. Sure, I don’t post nearly as much as I used to (remember when this blog used to be a daily thing?) but when I do post it’s meaningful to me, which is what’s important.

I’m sitting here right now, drinking some gingerbread tea, and feeling blessed. Eleven years down. Many more to go.

Sam