Ten Years and Counting

I've been blogging for ten years this month.

For a decade, I've been tapping away at my keyboard and sharing my thoughts, opinions, fears, and joys. When I started I was a newlywed. Children were a future wish. I had not yet been forged in the fire of heartbreak. I was so young.

My first blog post was written before Facebook. It was before MySpace. It was when LiveJournal was a combination of the two, a spot where we could keep up with friends strewn across the state and connect with people around the world.

Loke, Seanah, Amelia, Zannie, Denette, Aiyani, Samson, Amy...people who had shared the highs and lows of putting together a show with me. There are so many more veterans of Emerald Moon and Sapphire Moon who pop up on social media occasionally. I smile at the changes and sameness, cheer silently at their happiness from behind my screen, but they're the ones who joined me at LiveJournal and allowed me into their lives in a way even tech week can't.

(You didn't know I used to do shows? That was back when I used to belly dance.)

Blogging helped ease the pain of End of Showitis. We kept track of each other. We shared, commented, and continued to develop friendships.

Then I got pregnant.

Nervous after my miscarriage, I reached out to the far corners of the infant blogosphere and met Thai, Ashley, Kate, Heather, and Irina - my partners in new motherhood. I've watched their children and families grow with mine. They were with me in the wee hours of the morning, understanding my tears of frustration and giving me hope.

And still I kept writing.

I'd hoped to do something big for my decade of blogging. Some sort of giveaway, some sort of party, something to commemorate ten years of faithfully writing, day after day, week after week, year after year. Sure...I miss a day or two or ten. But rarely more.

Maybe, though, a quiet celebration is what's needed. A simple nod to myself that yes, blogging is a part of my life, a quiet part sometimes and a loud part others. It's a way for me to track and trace my life and the people who come and go from it. It's a way to mark the days and years and memories so that one day, I can open the book and remember.

There are a lot of bloggers who question why they blog. It's funny. I never had to.

I'm not in it for money, though perhaps it's silly not to market my little page here. I'm not in it for the popularity, though I'm so very grateful for the friends I've made.

I blog because it's what I do. It's as much a part of me as drinking tea every morning or parting my hair on the right.

Are you curious what my first blog post was? The one after I said, hey, this is my blog? I'll have to share it with you tomorrow. I was surprised and laughed a little when I read it. I should have known it would be a short story.

I've been blogging so long, I started out on this.