Three Years Blogging

On this day in 2010 I hit publish on this blog for the very first time.

It was not at all momentous. Like I've said before, I had no idea what I was doing, and continued in the dark for the entire first year. I got into more of a blogging groove about six months in when I wrote The First Step, but didn't discover the fabulosity of the blogosphere until the summer of 2011.

Since then I have been on a roll. I have completed two November NaBloPoMos, written to prompts, linked up with other blogs, started a Facebook page, redesigned my blog a couple of times, posted some product reviews, given some things away and learned how to tweet with the best of 'em.

I've learned a ton and made some new friends. I've laughed and cried. I hope you have too. I mean, I'm sorry if I made you cry. But then again, not really. Because if you did, that means I made you feel something, and that's pretty cool.

Becoming A BLOGGER has been so serendipitous that I marvel at how it has changed me, and probably the reason I have a pretty zen attitude about it. Sure, I want to be good at it, I want to have a following and a community and I love when I'm able to make a little money because of it. I can't deny that what I'm doing here makes me feel proud. But I haven't forced any of it. I have simply written and shared and learned. I explore possibilities and I'm open. Just open.

I feel like blogging was placed in my lap for me to pick up, mold and make my own, with only the slightest of encouragement from a friend (when I said, "sometimes I think about journaling", she said, "you could start a blog..."). I love how I get to blog for both selfish and self-less reasons. That I can work on my issues and enlighten people about those issues at the same time.

Because that's the most amazing thing about blogging -- enlightenment.  From mundane daily life stories that illustrate all the ways in which our paths are the same, to "light bulb moment" epiphanies that inspire, to giggle-inducing ridiculousness. There is something for everyone; infinite possibilities through which millions of people's paths can cross. Lives can be changed.

I am changed. In such great ways.

This is why I wanted to celebrate all month long and invited you all to celebrate with me. Fifteen awesome bloggers shared a post from some April. It was fun to see what they chose, and apparently they enjoyed going back through their archives and remembering some of the stuff they've written about.

My 5 favorites are (in order of submission):

• #2 Innocence Lost by Robbie at Fractured Family Tales, because she bravely wrote about a scary thing that happened when she was a child.
• #5 Here's Johnny by Stacie at Snaps and Bits, because it's funny!
• #8 The Land of Empathy and Wonder by Kristi at Finding Ninee, because it is a beautiful, amazing idea that should grow (and which she's started a guest series for).
• #11 The Story Of &%^* and The “Thing” by Kristi at The Robot Mommy, because she came up with the perfect way to explain tragedy to young children in the wake of the Boston bombings.
• #13 Metamorphosis by Rach at Life Ever Since, because she so eloquently expresses how motherhood changes us.

Also, I simply must give an honorable mention to Les at Time Out for Mom because she submitted a post she wrote last year about blogging. Les and I tend to agree on many things, and one of which is that we both describe our blogs as "my precious". I'm pretty sure I have literally said that before.

Er, blogging is nothing like being Gollum. Ahem.

So, yeah, three years of blogging under my belt! Thank you all so much for coming along on the ride with me. Thank you for reading, for sharing and most especially your kind comments on my most heartfelt posts.