It occurred to me at some point this winter that August of 2019 marked ten years of me blogging.
Ten. Years.
I actually went back to my old space and poked around a bit, read a few posts, skimmed a few comments. It’s CRAZY how many people commented back then. It’s crazy how much I used to comment in other people’s spaces. Blogging was such a massive part of me life; to say it was important to me just doesn’t do it nearly the justice it deserves.
In many ways, blogging was my life.
All of my best friends back then were found through blogging. Some I had met in real life, and some were even (eventually) my real life best friends. Others existed only through a screen, be that on our blogs or texting. I was on Twitter for a while but that overwhelmed me fast, and I stayed primarily in the blogosphere. I never even made it onto Instagram.
Sometimes, when I’m trying to log into something with my google account it will default to my old blogging gmail. I’m always taken aback when I see the handle. It’s like glimpsing a ghost of my former self.
It used to make me really sad when I went back to my old blog and read it. Really, really sad. I was in that space for five years. Generally I wrote a post every weekday. Some months there are 31 posts! (One February there are 31 posts!) I had those designated days where I would write a certain kind of post, like Thoughtful Thursdays and Useful Tuesdays. (I thought there were WTF!? Wednesdays but I don’t see that tag on the list. 😉 I did all these photo challenges (I should look back through those months too…). I participated in other people’s themed posts. I put up the buttons and the badges. I was a part of PAIL. Holy shit, I could go on and on. (I just found them! They were called So What Wednesdays! Ha!)
It’s just crazy to see it all there, the hundreds and HUNDREDS of posts. I took down my first paid-for space (someone actually bought the url recently and I started getting traveling posts from it in my reader! 😉 I guess I’ve been here for four years? I remember hoping this space would be something amazing… instead I just let it kind of fade away.
I’m not sure what the emotions are here. Definitely not regret. Some massive doses of nostalgia to be sure. But honestly, most I’m just grateful – grateful that blogging, and the ALI blogosphere, was there for me when I needed it most, that writing in my own spaces and reading in other people’s spaces filled a hole that otherwise would have felt bottomless. And also grateful that I don’t need it as much anymore.
It’s weird for a huge piece of my life to exist somewhere like that. I don’t have Facebook anymore and I don’t participate in any other social media, so my blogs are all I’ve got. Like all online presences there is some cringe worthy shit in my spaces, but nothing that mortifies me. It’s been long enough that I can afford myself a little bit of grace.
I guess it was from all that stumbling gracefully…
(Ha! Sorry! I couldn’t help myself…)
It is interesting how much blogging has changed and I have been blogging since 2008! I don’t know how I would have gotten through IF without blogs- maybe people nowadays join a Facebook group or something? I certainly wrote more often a few years ago…now I’m lucky to get a post or two up a month.
Like you, I’m SO thankful that blogging was huge during our ALI years. Online interactions have shifted so much in the past decade, and the commenting on posts just isn’t much of a thing anymore (see Dooce’s posts for example!). For as awful as the ALI years, I’m grateful to the support I had and friendships I made. I actually am on hold with United right now booking tickets to the DR for February break — the kids and I are going to stay with Fiona and her family! So excited to finally meet another blog friend IRL. 🙂
I don’t blog anymore, but I remember the period you’re talking about. I, too, used to write nearly every day and comment often on others’ blogs. I pretty much gave up blogging by the time my sons were about 3 years old: my blog has only four posts since they turned 4.
THANK YOU all for each and every post.
You have made impacts you are unaware of. You are all much appreciated.
I followed you from old one to new one. Your blog was the first one I found exploring miscarriage and infertility. I still follow as my daughter is 6 and growing. Familiar landscape. Comfort. We are one and done after not being able to face another IVF round and uncertainty. In a weird but the same parallel lives in different countries and the same coast.
Happy blogoversary! Even if this blog isn’t 10 years old, you’ve been blogging that long, and that’s something! I’m not sure I’ve followed you all 10 years, but it’s been quite a while now 😉 and I have learned a lot from you. Congratulations! 🙂