Bicentennial

This is my 200th blog post. That is really quite remarkable to me. To celebrate, I found time between finishing my homework, attending an online class, and watching the Phillies win (woot!) to read the 199 previous posts.

The first thing I noticed is that I started this blog on 6/12/11 – a mere 368 days ago (or 369 days by the time I publish this). It’s a shame that the anniversary was just a few days ago and I had no idea. But I put a reminder in iCal, so it will never pass unnoticed again. It’s also crazy that I reached 200 posts in just over a year considering how infrequently I posted in the second half of last year.

Another thing I found amusing is my bio. I don’t think I’d read the About page since I wrote it a year ago and I love that I warned of my fondness for swearing but have mostly tried not to swear. I know I was just trying to cover my ass, and it was a valid thing to do since in the offline world I really do cuss like it’s my job, but that doesn’t make it any less funny.

Then there’s the fun of noticing typos and mistakes. That hurts. I’m not gonna go back and fix them, but they do bum me out. The worst part is that I read each post several times before I hit Publish, but I guess that’s why they say you should get someone else to review your writing.

It’s almost 1 AM, so I won’t do justice to the time I spent reading my old posts with this post. Oh well.

I noticed some recurring themes, such as my sleep/waking up issues and my utter hatred for Tampa and my house. I didn’t count or anything, but I bet I wrote more negative than positive posts. Especially this year since I have to write every day. It would be interesting to go through and quantify that somehow to see if I’m right.

Another thing that struck me was the change in my feelings about school (and I suppose librarianship as well). On 7/20/11 I wrote with all confidence that “…I am pursuing the right field….I will enjoy the fulfillment of helping people.” And since March I’ve written a lot about motivation issues, apathy, and a desire to drop out of school (“drop everything/start it all over” indeed). Quite a change in less than a year, eh? I started this blog because of library school, and now library school is messing with my head.

Alright, I really need to go to bed. Maybe I’d feel better about things if I actually got a good night’s sleep.

My plan was not to be a downer with this post; it was supposed to be a celebration of a pretty awesome accomplishment. I guess my brain had other ideas.  I really am proud of myself for hitting 200 posts and I do enjoy blogging. I mean, if I didn’t I wouldn’t post every day, regardless of my New Year’s Resolution. After all, New Year’s Resolutions are made to be broken, right?

Until tomorrow.

A Century

If you had told me a year ago that within the next 366 days I would both start a blog and write 100 posts, I would’ve thought you were crazy.  But here we are.

I’ve mentioned before that I thought about starting a blog for years.  But it wasn’t until I was required to start one for my very first Library Science class that I actually did it.  What stopped me from doing something I was interested in for years?  I did, of course.  As interested as I was in blogging, I wasn’t really sure that I had anything to say.  If I’m being honest, I’m still not sure that I have anything to say.  But after starting this blog (and especially after making a resolution to blog every day this year), I find that I don’t really care so much whether or not I have anything to say 🙂  (I suppose that’s the blogging equivalent of talking to hear yourself speak, but whatever.)

Since 100 is one of those big, even numbers that make humans get all nostalgic, my plan was to spend some time re-reading my blog today and write a blog in review kind of post.  But then I never got around to reading and now it’s far too late if I want to post this before midnight.  C’est la vie.

There are a couple of thoughts that have been swirling around my brain for the past few days, though:

• For all that I said I don’t care whether or not I have anything to say, I’ve only told several people that I actually know (as opposed to people I have classes with but I’ve never met) about this blog.  At first I didn’t tell people because I felt weird about blogging (and I still do sometimes); but not in an “only losers blog” kind of way, it’s my very special debilitating inability to put myself out there.  I knew the two people I told, my mom and my college roommate, would be nothing but supportive of the endeavor, which is why I told them.  I sometimes think about telling other people (particularly my Facebook friends), but then I think that I don’t want potential employers to discover this blog through Facebook.  Not that I’ve written anything I’m ashamed of, but I don’t generally walk into interviews blabbing about how much I love Brand New or the Phillies or Wawa.
• One thing I wanted to do when I started this blog was be myself (which seems to run counter to my inability to put myself out there but whatever, I’m a walking contradiction).  I know that I have succeeded because my college roommate told me how well my voice comes through 🙂  And I didn’t even have to ask her or anything, she just said it in an email once.
• Speaking of writing in my voice, I often wonder why I bother to use WordPress’s proofreader.  I almost never use any of its suggestions.  I love that it’s much more intelligent than, say, Word’s spellcheck, but sometimes I get annoyed when it tells me that I’m using a redundant expression.  I know I’m being redundant, but I like my redundant expression.  On the other hand, I love when it tells me that I’m using a complex expression.  “A complex expression” sounds so smart, doesn’t it?
• One huge thing that this blog has taught me is that I really like to write.  I used to think that I liked to write, but then I got away from writing.  But writing every day has really reawakened my fondness for it.  To the point that I’m considering taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year.  If I do, I’ll probably only do it on a personal scale (which is to say that I won’t tell anybody about it).  Also, I can pretty much guarantee that I won’t do it during the actual NaNoWriMo in November.  I’ll be wrapping up my last semester in November – there is no way that I’ll write a novel on top of schoolwork and blogging.  And looking for a job.  (Yuck.)  Do I expect to write a novel that’s any good?  No, but I think it will be fun to try.
• Another thing I’ve learned is that my propensity for putting off blogging until the end of the day is a good thing.  Especially now that I’m making a point to blog every day. If I have to get a new post up every day, then I have to just go with whatever comes out of my brain.  I re-read each post once or twice before I hit the Publish button, but I don’t really have time to second guess myself.  Which is a huge reason why I have pretty much stopped caring about whether or not I have something to say on any given day.  And that’s kinda huge for me.

So, thank you for reading my blog.  I’ve really enjoyed writing it so far and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

Until tomorrow.