I occasionally allude to an interesting-to-me fact: I’ve been posting my thoughts online in the form of blogs for a long time.
To give that claim some context, as of today I have been a blogger for twenty years.
That’s right.
On April 20, 2001, twenty years ago to today, I posted my first dispatch post from a hot little apartment in metro Vancouver shortly after moving there for a post-university job.
I don’t want to sour this post in any way with recollections of why I shelved that blog or mourning all the other little temporary websites that lived for a time online before fading into the obscurity of a backup file on my computer. Needless to say, the digital road from there to here has been long, rewarding, introspective, emotional, and likely worn out more than one keyboard.
I’ve been read by lot of people for too many reasons to list.
I’ve been scraped by content farms stealing my words and photos.
I’ve been recognized by media and linked from news articles.
I’ve been hacked.
I’ve been awarded for words, design, and concept.
I’ve been undermined by people I had trusted for things I’d written in good faith.
I’ve told stories.
I’ve had regrets.
I’ve corrected mistakes.
I’ve learned, grown, shared, and opened myself up.
Literally millions of words have appeared online at times, and as many of those words as I have cared to keep are safely archived and privately backed up in safe digital spaces for my personal future reference.
If you have been reading and enjoying this blog, thanks. It is the latest in now-twenty years of efforts to share my words and thoughts and creative soul online. It has been a big part of my life, mostly for good, and always interesting… well, at least for me.
It has been an outlet and an inspiration to step out of a pandemic-based rut (an even more significant thing to say today as my age-group eligibility for a vaccine starts this morning!)
I write and post, and I write therefore I am. And while this blog may still be young and new, for me personally this is a blogging good anniversary worth pausing to blog about.