Break out the cake and streamers! Put on the fanciful party hats! Prepare a plate of the finest meats and cheeses in all the land! Battling the Current has turned five years old!
Yes, in an accomplishment that even I have a hard time believing I have now been running this blog for five years. That encompasses 1,290 posts, somewhere around 800,000 words and an obsession with Lindsay Lohan that has seen her go from starring in Mean Girls to getting arrested in Hollywood to being unable to get arrested in Hollywood. She has gone from a hot young starlet worthy of a crush to someone who even looking at her picture online makes you wonder if you need a shot of penicillin. Just shows what five years can do to somebody.
I, on the other hand, have aged rather well. As I’ve said on many occasions I don’t think I ever expected the blog to turn out the way it has. I didn’t exactly start it as a lark (as I knew precisely what I wanted to do with it) but I never anticipated having enough material to write about night after night after night. Sure, I kept a writer’s journal but I didn’t expect anyone would actually want to read it. Now over the course of a month I have hits from every continent and a surprisingly large fan base in Norway. (Shout out to my Norwegians! Johann Olav Koss rules!) I look at the hit map daily and I am amazed by it every time.
I find it fascinating to look back over the archives and see just what I was writing about at any point in time. You can get a glimpse into what was on my mind, what was going on in the world or just get a sense of time and place. That is the wonder of writing every day; it does provide you with a record of your life. True, most people don’t share theirs with the entire world but it is very worthwhile.
I will say that it has changed over the years. I really feel that my writing style has improved and that the humor flows a little easier now. I have increased the multimedia aspects and would still like to do more of that. But most of all I think I have found my voice. I know what I want to write about and how to make it work. I always dreamed of being a novelist but in reality I think what I am best at is precisely what I am doing. I know how to write short essays filled with self-deprecating humor that expose some facts on modern life. I may not have written a novel yet but I have this to my credit.
There is one change that has occurred over the past year and as always Glen Hansard explains it better than I do. I read an interview with him today and he mentioned “When you are sad you write pages in your diary. On your happiest days the pages are blank.” Some people may have noticed that the blog has had more than a few blank pages over this past year and for good reason. I am happier with my life now than I can ever recall. I am dating the woman of my dreams, I have a job that challenges me and my life finally seems to be in order. That wasn’t the case when I started this. In fact, it was pretty much the exact opposite. It is amazing what can happen to someone in a few years time and it is nice to know that this site documents it.
To everyone, thanks for reading this and commenting and just taking a second to check out my little corner of cyberspace. I’m going to keep on writing until I come up with a good reason to stop. But I figure I have to hit a million words now. Too close to stop.
Oh, and my gift to you is I am opening the blog again for questions or post ideas. Any lingering questions on your mind? Do you need to know how a thermos can keep coffee hot and lemonade cold? Just send them my way.
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