Blog Anniversary: Nine Years Ago

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!! It’s hard to believe yet another year has come and gone, but here I am, celebrating So About What I Said’s blog anniversary!!

Nine years ago TODAY, I sat at our old Dell desktop computer and wrote the first post of this very blog. I was just 27. I didn’t really know what exactly I was doing, and I most definitely didn’t know what this blog would become over the years.

But now, after 5,847 posts and one full year of being self-hosted, I’m seeing what this blog has become and, well, it floors me EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I’ve been thinking all week of how I can properly mark this anniversary. All I kept thinking, though, is that this anniversary is sort of anticlimactic. I mean, compared to next year’s 10-year anniversary (a whole DECADE?!?), nine years just kind of…falls flat, you know?

And then I realized something: You can’t have an anniversary without going through the one before it. I can’t have a 10-year without a 9-year. So this year means something. It reflects all the stepping stones I’ve walked to get here — metaphorical stepping stones, of course! In a way, I suppose, it truly validates this journey I’ve been on all these years. You know me, I’m all about keeping it real.

Speaking of real, I wanted to take an appropriate pic for this post. Above all, it had to represent me, of course. Some people try to present a meticulously flawless, perfect version of themselves online — Instagrammers, I’m looking at you with your Starbucks selfies. Me? I have no trouble presenting the real me in the above photo, which perfectly captures my life as a freelance writer. In my case, that includes my classic yellow sweater, hair that’s a bit wild and, yes, I think that’s a piece of food on my shirt! #NoShame

This space and YOU, the amazing readers who keep coming back to read about my awkwardness and outspokenness, are the true treasures of my life. I love and appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. This year alone, I’ve had some very hurtful curves thrown my way. People have tried to tell me that I shouldn’t write about my life and have minimized my job as a writer. I wish I could say I didn’t let them get in my head, but they did. For far too long. But the people who really matter and mean the most to me lifted me up! They pulled me out of that dark place and helped me realize that THIS is what I’m meant to do — to tell my story honestly and openly. Thank you for letting me do this for NINE YEARS!!! Here’s to many more years of laughing and sharing!

I LOVE YOU ALL… xoxo