I’ve been blogging for thirteen years as of today!
I started this blog in 2005 to document my college semester in Rome (in spring 2006), then liked writing and connecting with people so much, I stuck with it!
At first, I hand coded my blog, and didn’t add a way for people to comment. I just wanted to document my experiences. Then I saw on other blogs how fun it was to leave comments and interact with the blogger. So I added a widget to side of the blog that allowed people to leave comments, in general. I eventually added code to each post to comment specifically on that post, then in 2007, my blogger friends told me about WordPress and RSS feeds, so I bought the “Dummies” book for that, and the rest is history!
So, from the beginning, my blog was about documentation and story telling, and STILL is. I’m not here to make money, get free stuff, push an agenda, give you advice, or get “famous” (ha). I love and appreciate having a place to document some parts of my life, and I love the awesome surprise of it connecting me with people from around the world (pretty much what I said last year)!
So, again, thank you for reading! There’s not as many of us blogging for story-telling purposes as there used to be, and I appreciate all of you that still do! And I appreciate all of you that don’t blog but take the time to read this, and interact with me!
I’m glad you are still going 🙂
Thanks! And thanks for commenting! 😀
13 already? Dang! Where does the time go? Congrats!
I know – it just flies by! Thanks!
Congratulations!!! You have done really well hanging in there and persisting when so many of us have dropped out of blogging – good for you for keeping it real and interesting all these years! As long as you keep writing, I’m sure you’ll have loyal readers.
Aww, thank you! 🙂
I am so glad you are still going and still using your blog to tell stories. So many of my favorite bloggers have changed to doing all sponsored stuff and you can tell it just isn’t authentic. I read blogs to learn about other people’s lives. Not to be sold stuff!
Thank you!
And YES, THAT. The amount of blogs I read was severely cut when a lot of people made that change.
Happy blogiversary! I’m so impressed by all the work you did to create a blog in the first place – it definitely sounds like a MUCH more hands on process than signing up for a free WordPress account and going from there, which is what I did. And I’m 100% with Kiersten – I was just thinking the other day how it really bums me out that I have such a hard time finding blogs I want to read (i.e. about people’s lives) these days. Everything is so curated and content-oriented: I just want to make friends and know how their lives are going, not have someone random person get paid to tell me what shirt to wear or kitchen appliance to use or where to buy my groceries or whatever. I can make those decisions for myself, thanks.
Thank you! I was really in to learning how to code when I started. Like, more in to that than the content, ha (if you look back at it, you can see that).
Yep, yep, yep. I get excited when I find a new blogger to check out, especially out here, but most seem to be the same: Sponsored posts. How tos. Super fake crap. It sucks. (and don’t even get me started on people using instagram as a blog – nooooo, I just mostly want pictures there, with a bit of text, thanks!)
Late to the party but HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!!! Honestly, 13 years is a long time to keep anything up, so this is impressive. I like reading little snippets into your life and I’m glad you share so much!
Thank you! I’m glad you like it!!! Thanks for reading and commenting so much!
13 years! That’s nuts. It also means I graduated from high school 13 years ago, and I don’t want to think about that too much. 😉
Happy to have found your blog many moons ago and connected with you!
Ha! You know, I only tend to think about my age when my nephews or siblings get older… but your comment makes me think about low long I’ve been out of college (and HS!).
Same!!! And thanks for being one of the bloggers who keeps it real and still shares stories and personal stuff!
Yay congrats! And thank you for still blogging! It is fun to follow along and I like hearing stories from you especially when they give me a chuckle! I really enjoy the “keeping it real” aspect too as it can be reassuring to me to read (a little portion) the ups and downs and stressors and excitement in another person’s life. It helps me to see that others might be struggling too and not just see the highlight reel that we often get on social media!
Thank you! And you’re welcome! Social media (and a lot of blogs) feel so curated now, even when they are sharing “struggles” and trying to be real. It’s not fun when you can tell people are being so fake!!!
Happy blog-iversary! I love the fry “13”–this is one of the many reasons we are friends, another reason being your blog. I love how genuine and “yourself” you are in your posts. It always makes for an interesting read and lets me keep up with the big and little things going on in your life!
Ha ha, thanks! I was like “What could I use for my 13? These gross fries (which I will gladly eat all of!)!”
And thanks! That is what I am for! I appreciate that your blog is that way as well!