nine-year blogiversary

I wrote my very first blog post nine years ago today. In the previous few months I’d left a two-year relationship with my live-in boyfriend, moved back to my hometown into my parents’ basement with my two-year-old, and started dating a pastor’s kid. I was a bit of a mess.

This was my first blog entry, on July 24, 2004:

Isn’t it wierd how sometimes the things you think are so dumb are actually kinda cool? I find it that way with a lot of things starting with this blog. When I first heard about them – thought they were pretty stupid and I still kinda do but they, like most things, can be used for either good or evil and I intend to use this blog for good.

I often wonder if there’s just a select group of people who will conform to any situation. They can be a jock, they can be a band geek, they can be in drama club, they can do drugs on the lawn in front of school. They can do this all at the same time and not be convicted. Is it what you do that makes you who you are or is it who you are that makes you do what you do? Can going to McDonalds make you a hamburger? Can going to church make you a Christian?

Too many people define themselves by what they do. People drink and say that it’s who they are so they can’t change it. Doing drugs is who they are. Swearing is a part of who they are – without it they wouldn’t be themselves. If you change, are you still you? Do you perpetually convert into a different person your whole life? Is there a time when you find who you really are and stay that way until you die?

I used my blog as therapy. I had exactly one reader, and wasn’t looking to gain any more. I knew nothing of “audience” or “SEO”. I didn’t post photos. Facebook and Twitter did not exist. MySpace was barely on the radar. I didn’t write about parenting, I barely even mentioned my kid. I had no idea that people read the blogs of people they did not know.

Sometimes I wish I could write like I did back then. I became so introspective. When I read my old blog entries, I don’t even know that person any more.

Nine years later, though, I like what this blog has done for me. I’ve met some of my very best friends through this blog. I developed a love of photography and writing. I make (part of) a living creating other people’s blogs and websites. I’ve documented for myself bits and pieces of the lives of my children, things I’d otherwise forget.

I like this here blog thing. Here’s to nine more years.