The Last 5 Years

Tonight is my fifth anniversary!!!

Of blogging.

Five years ago tonight, around 1 AM, I found an outlet for myself to start rambling, ranting, and raving, but without having to actually go to the work of writing with a pen/cil.

That was back when I used a website called MySpace, which now feels as dated as saying that I listened to an 8 track player while I blogged.

Back then, I stayed up until around 3 every night, and slept until 11 every day. I worked afternoons and evenings doing piano lessons and theatre, so I didn’t have any reason to get up or go to bed any earlier. I would stay up late and watch TV shows on DVD and blog.

My first blog post read as follows:

I don't really have anything insightful to say. Every time I have a blog or journal of any kind, I slack off after only a few entries. It's late, though, I can't sleep, and I'm bored. So, I'm blogging.

Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog.

Ooh! I thought of something interesting to say. Have you ever found yourself so not used to receiving compliments in certain areas that when it happens, you have a hard time believing it? I hate that. I struggle with it WAY too much. It's a good thing I have Batman shoes, though. They make everything better. Except for when Ender makes fun of them. Jerk.

Notes: I forgot that my posts used to actually be kind of short, I did NOT slack off after a few entries, I have NO idea what compliments I was talking about, I still have my Batman shoes (they’ve even made an appearance on this blog), and I don’t ever talk to Ender anymore (which is sad).

I kept my blog on MySpace until the end of 2007. For most of the year of 2007, I was only using MySpace to keep up my blog. When MySpace kept changing to try to be more like Facebook, and I kept getting more and more spam and inappropriate messages on there, I finally decided it was time to move my blog.

I brought most of the posts here, took a handful to my secret blog, and the last few were left behind, because I didn’t feel that they were worthy of remembering (mostly just video clips and song lyrics).

There have been times that I’ve slacked a little, but I’ve stayed fairly consistent through the last 5 years, and I’m glad that I have something to look back on and see where my life has come.

When I started blogging, I had no clear direction in life. I had no college degree. I was convinced that I’d never get married. I was not a religious person. I had only directed one musical and one straight play. I had never taught in a school (other than a little subbing). I was still working for a youth theatre. I was still teaching piano lessons. Look how far I’ve come.

When it comes right down to it, I’m a selfish blogger, because I don’t really blog for other readers. My blogs simply exist for my own record-keeping purposes. Although, every once in a while, I write passive-aggressive posts like this, and this, knowing full-well that the people who I wanted to read them would. And sometimes, I write things because I know certain people will find them funny, like this and this. But the fact remains that they were written for me. And that’s the thing that I love about blogging.

I’m not one of those people who feels the need to put a counter on my blog or a map to show where people are coming from. I know those facts, because I have an invisible counter. But I don’t feel the need to brag. Even when a post gets the most posts in one day that my blog has EVER gotten.

I’m glad that the posts exist for me, and the fact that you’re reading this is icing on the cake. Except, I don’t really like icing on cake. Ooh! The fact that you’re reading this is cheese on the pizza. And for that, I thank you, because pizza is my favorite food.

And thus ends another long rambling musing. Counting the posts on this blog, the secret blog, and MySpace (not counting duplicates), I’ve blogged about 230 times. Here’s to 230 more!