My First Blogiversary

Well, today’s the day!  Today, I celebrate having been an active member of the Blogisphere for one year… 12 months… 365 days… 8,760 hours… one trip around the sun…

One year ago today, I begrudgingly set up a blog because the You-Must-Do-This-To-Be-A-Successful-Writer-Rulemaking-Powers-That-Be dictated that if I didn’t blog, I could already consider myself a complete failure in the world of writing.  They told me that without a blog, I was a nobody, and I should not waste my time writing and killing trees as I contributed to the slush pile of the rest of the losers like me who resided there.

So I set up my blog and made my first post.  Okay, technically that was less of a post, and more of an introduction.  My first real post about anything was the following day, and it featured a cool photo of my son Jeremy.  At that point, I had no idea what I should or shouldn’t say on a writer’s blog, and I thought if anything, it would be a boring part of my day that was necessary if I hoped to do anything with the manuscripts I’d written.

Here’s what did not happen:  I did not find fame and fortune on the internet.  I did not have tens of thousands of people contact me and ask for advance copies of my books because they just couldn’t wait to read them.  I did not meet my future literary agent (or future husband), and have him beg me to send him my work so he could represent me.  And I did not get Freshly Pressed.

But something else also did not happen:  I did not let much time pass before I found something to write about.  I did not mind coming back every day and finding other people to follow.  I did not regret one moment I invested in blogging.

Here’s what did happen:  I “met” a plethora of wonderful people who I believe genuinely have a good heart and a beautiful soul.  I now look forward to interacting with so many of you, and I miss when I’m not available to be here or when you aren’t here.  I got the amazing opportunity to become a beta reader for a few of you, and a few of you also became amazing beta readers for me.  I learned a lot about the new rules of writing, and was able to fine-tune and polish my manuscripts which I feel took them to a whole new level.

During this year, my blog has received over 28,000 views, over 6,500 visitors, over 20,000 likes, and nearly 9,000 comments.  Furthermore, I now have over 1,400 followers.

And me?  I’ve made more new friends than I can count.  Actually, for many of you, I now think of you as family – Not like the family I was born into – If you’ve walked this journey with me this past year, you know that I don’t have the best family support system.  However, I love my blog family more than you can know.  There are several of you that I have no doubt, if we lived closer, we’d be fast personal friends.  I have no doubt that if I was passing through your town and my car broke down, many of you would come to my aide and offer me a place to crash for the night.  I know in my heart that if I announced I was going on a trip near you, many of you would either ask me to lunch or even ask me to visit you while I was there.  I’m confident that if I were dealing with a personal crisis, many of you would offer your shoulder for me to cry on or even attempt to help me solve the problem.  And I would do the same for so many of you.  Of course, I’d still like to be Freshly Pressed, but even without it, I’m happy.

Thank you, blog family, for taking me into your arms and making me one of your own.  I love you! ❤

~Rachel