I have to say, even if it is a little self-indulgent, that I have been tracking the page views on this blog for the last week or so and wondering if we would break 1000. Guess what? We did this weekend. And, the funny part if that this weekend was so busy for me that for the first time in months I had to just leave my computer alone for a few days. All I had to do was look away, and it happened.
This blog has been an interesting journey for me. I started it—as the early followers know—multiple
times, and for years had an epic battle with my intestinal fortitude (special
thanks to “Mean” Gene Okerland for that) during the great adjective wars of
2009-2011. I call these the adjective
wars because I was flipping between them faster than a black belt at a judo
competition. Did I have the courage to
post some of my own thoughts? The Guts? The integrity? The self-indulgence? The intelligence?
Well, something finally gave and a friend challenged me to
get it going. We made a deal, in fact,
that we would each start a blog together and use each other for support (still
waiting for your first entry TB). In any
event, I started to blog, mostly once per week.
I try to write about things that I see and things that I feel, hoping
that somewhere someone will find something meaningful. I was really nervous. I can’t stress enough how nervous I was, but
something very strange and positive happened: I liked it. I didn’t like it because I felt self-indulged
and I didn’t feel self-absorbed, rather, I felt like it helped me sort out my
day. I am a very reflective person by
nature and having the chance to write down my thoughts and then post them—the ones
that can be posted—has been very healthy.
It is also something small that I etch into every week that is
creative. I actually set time aside to
do this, and even though that time shrinks more than it grows, and gets moved around
to accommodate all of those other Principalish demands, it is time set aside
for me.
So, where do we sit after 8 months and 46 posts? Well, I have a very diverse group o f page
view origins as you can see from below (including countries with more than 1 page view):
I would have never expected people from Europe and Asia to find the blog, but they did. I have one follower (thanks RB), and a bunch of people who seem to check in every week. Only one person has ever commented, but that is kind of neat in it’s own way. I mean, I have never asked for a comment and things have evolved into more of a reflective piece for me. My original plan was to have far more content that was “classroom ready”, but it always seemed that one of those pensive moods would catch me that that was the direction I would go. I’m not doing anything new; people have journaled forever. The difference for me is that I feel somewhat accountable to post something each week, and the anonyminity of an “audience” makes things so much easier because I am writing about what I want and not about what someone else is expecting. Did that sound right?
This has been a very positive part of my growth this year,
and something that I plan to continue. I
would recommend this as a effective tools for reflection and growth to anyone.
Here's to 2000!
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