As I look back at the past five years there are some things that I would change and a heck of a lot that I wouldn’t. Here’s a small glimpse at what I have learned about blogging, through blogging and because of blogging:
+ This hobby will make your butt flat, your wrist shot, your neck strained and sometimes cause ulcers in your stomach. However, these are all very minor side affects compared to other well known medicines that don’t provide nearly the joy of this activity. Unless we are talking Viagra or some other stimulating item, I’m sure the outcome of that is slightly more exciting than sitting behind a computer screen. I’ll come back to you in 40 years on the answer to that from my new blog “Almost Dead and Grey”. Stay tuned.
+ People like weird. I get that pretty pictures are fun to look at and tutorials on how to apply eye shadow are fascinating, but at the heart of this space are people who want to know that you are a freak just like them and appreciate it when you let your quirks fly.
+ More so than that however, people appreciate when you share your real struggles whether it be about your troubles with anxiety, how your feelings get hurt easily, or how pooping doesn’t always come naturally for you. Team warm lemon water for the win.
+ You probably don’t have to mention your menstruation cycle every time it shows up, but I mean you can.
+ You will do more fun things in your life because you need content to write about and pictures to post to Instagram, proving my theory that social media can cause you to live a cooler life, or at least makes dealing with a bird pooping on your shoulder a little easier.
+ Really awesome things can come your way. Like new jobs, opportunities to travel, email exchanges with somebody you’ve never met but who totally gets you, fun business ventures with friends, but especially opportunities to talk about bladder leakage and the list goes on.
+ Speaking of awesome opportunities, having one too many mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby is awesome and highly recommended.
+ You will develop all sorts of new passions that you never knew you cared about – photography becomes a thing, interior design is an exciting new challenge, social media is exhausting but is equally fun and strategic and dressing yourself becomes a thing that you care about.
+ You will fall in love with all sorts of brands, businesses, and the people behind the business that you want to be crazy successful so you spend all sorts of money with them to help the cause. My personal favorites? House of Belonging, Miss Chic, Jessica N Designs, Candelles, Junk Art Gypsyz, JORD Watches, Sugar Love Boutique and of course, Stitch Fix.
+ When you title things like “Getting Dirty With Your Husband” and “When You’re Husband Won’t Tell You You’re Beautiful” people will click on your posts. All of your crazy ex-lovers will also click on these posts and leave evil love spells too which is fun.
+ Speaking of comments, leaving them on blogs used to be thing apparently. Who knew.
+ Becoming friends with strangers living in other states is actually way more fun than it sounds like and a lot less creepy than Dateline leads you to believe. You’ll do crazy things like fly across the country and sleep in the same bed with them before even having a phone conversation.
+ When you leave the floor wide open for people to leave anonymous comments, people will get crazy and your dad will suddenly realize that the majority of your readers either really enjoy vibrators or really dislike sex. Fun!
+ It will change your life in ways you never thought possible. So much so that when you sit down to write a post about reflecting on the past five years, you find yourself crying tears of gratitude, joy, and “oh my gosh – did I really post that?’ It will absolutely be one of the best decisions of your life, at least in this girl’s life, it was.
Thank you for spending the past five years with me – without you, this place wouldn’t be nearly as fun as what it is. I look forward to the next 5, 15 and 50.