Growth through Words

Last week, I accomplished a pretty neat little milestone on WordPress: my 100th post! I had originally made this website back in 2016 when my first cozy mystery was picked up by a publisher before an unexpected series of events ensued. However, to my own detriment, I didn’t do anything with the blog for years. Finally, last year I felt the need to return here, and I did so slowly, like a leaky faucet, until this January, where I made writing on my blog one of my resolutions. I’m grateful that I did! I wanted to share my writing with others, and I felt a powerful need for a sense of community with other writers.

If you’re fairly new to this world like me, or even if you have 1,000 or 10,000 posts (or 100,000– I know you’re out there!) under your belt, you probably agree that there are many great reasons to blog. I found that reading others’ blogs, commenting/replying, and joining writing challenges were ways that I felt a sense of that writing community that I was searching for. I’ve had the opportunity to learn about different styles of poetry and hear from people around the world. I’ve learned a lot, and I’m someone who loves learning so much I’ve dedicated my life to it as a teacher. The blogosphere is a fascinating place, and I’m happy to be here. Maybe someday I’ll hit 200 posts and get another of these amazingly swag clipart badges.

Or maybe I’ll make my own badge. Or learn how to make my own gif! Yeah! That’s a goal of mine for the upcoming school year. I have to make these Gen Z-ers in my classroom laugh somehow, guys; low quality, homemade tech is sure to do the trick. (Yes, I do embarrass myself regularly in my classroom for the entertainment of teenagers; life’s too short to worry about becoming one of their memes.)

One other interesting stat was that, as of today, I supposedly have 100 subscribers here; I thought it was cool to hit these two (same) numbers at about the same time. I think the site counts me, though, for some reason, so it’s probably 99, minus some bots and others who accidentally subscribed, so maybe the actual total is like 12. But it’s cool either way. I’m small fries, but maybe I’m growing into a Big Mac? Sorry, that was way too cheesy. Even for me, and I’m from Wisconsin.

Either way, I’m sincerely thankful for those of you who are willing to stop by and read my bit of weird rambling regularly. Reading your responses has been phenomenal and has made a difference in my own thoughts and writing, especially when I share new poetry forms I’m not sure I’m crafting correctly, or when I share the truly chaotic and uncomfortable moments from my cancer experience and my publishing failures. I’m hopeful that some of my writing and experience speaks to you. Thank you for reading!