Five Years Down…

Today happens to be my 5th Blogoversary! Over the past five years I have written 1453 posts on Suburban Scrawl, which is a pretty darn good average: 291 per year.

I didn’t feel any pressure to write any kind of overly spectacular post to celebrate this milestone for a couple of reasons:

1. It’s Sunday and I’m in the middle of a bathroom renovation so I can’t sit here working on my craft for hours.
2. No matter how little effort I put into writing this post, it is bound to end up better (by leaps and bounds) than my very first post here on Suburban Scrawl on October 28, 2007, which was totally lame.

Perhaps the biggest reason though, is that I am well aware of the fact that I can’t express how much awesomeness Suburban Scrawl has added to my life in just five years. What started out to be writing practice for a writer who rarely took the time to write became a regular habit. In fact, I’ve become the type of person who gets withdrawal symptoms if I don’t write regularly.

I’ve learned so much about my city and all it has to offer by visiting it often for events and all kinds of other experiences, which led to me finally finishing the book that I wanted to get on the shelves.

I’ve become very, very comfortable with social media. Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms are easy peasy for me and I am actually the one who is really good at explaining the ins and outs of social media to people I know who are inexperienced with all of it.

I’ve become very experienced in working with brands. I’ve learned what constitutes a good brand/blogger relationship for me and how I want to partner with brands for mutual benefit. (Hint: relationships matter.)

I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone to co-produce a live show. Listen To Your Mother Chicago (back in May) was a watershed moment in my life because it made me realize that sometimes doing something that is scary and different is exactly what I need.

Most of all, the creation of Suburban Scrawl has connected me with people all over the world. I have met too many amazing people to count, and I have the added blessing of having found some of the very best friends I’ve had in my life, ever. ONLINE. Which doesn’t sound as universally weird these days as it would have ten years ago.

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate each and every one of you and look forward to another five years*.

*TIMES TEN!