Nine

In the blogosphere, my blog is ancient.

Many blogs I followed when I first started this little pink confection, nine years ago today, are long abandoned, filed away in some corner of the Internet. For some reason, blogging has stuck with me, and as other blogging friends moved on towards Tumblr and Twitter exclusively (I use Twitter daily and have used Tumblr), I have stayed loyal to Blogger and this creation.

A guy once told me he was a little bit jealous of my ability to put my thoughts out there like this. I told him I just have a lot of words and thoughts and feelings tumbling around in my head. He replied, "It's sexy, to be honest."

Maybe. I just know that all my life, I've enjoyed telling stories. As a child, I tried to write my great novel every so often--I wanted to write a story about twins, just like the Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books. Then I wanted to write about a girl and her race horse, just like the Thoroughbred series. All of these would be made into blockbuster movies, of course. Starring me.

The advice all writers get is to write what you know, so...I do. This blog is nine years--nine years!!--of my adventures. I joke that I can make an adventure out of going to the grocery store (actually, I can). I've been fortunate enough to have a great many grand adventures since starting this blog--teaching in England, living in Washington, surviving depression, losing ninety pounds. I also feel very fortunate that very rarely have I lost my interest in writing about them. There was a stretch of time while I lived in Antioch where my muse left me, or I just didn't feel comfortable sharing what was really going on in my life with the world--this was when I gained a lot of weight, felt my absolute worst as a teacher, and suffered from some pretty hefty anxiety and depression. And in recent months, I've been light on the blogging, not always feeling inspired. Until recently, actually, I've felt like I ought to keep quiet about certain things on my blog...but the truth is, I miss just being candid and real. I'm a human being, with a lot of words, thoughts and feelings tumbling around in my head. Sometimes the choice of whether or not to share them is entirely out of my hands. The posts just write themselves.

At any rate, it's been a Wild and Absolutely True nine years, and I hope to continue blogging for a long time to come. I don't do it to go viral, or get a ton of comments. I write here simply because I need to tell my story, even if few people see it. If you are reading it, thank you.