My 7th Bloggiversary

I was checking my blog stats the other day when I saw a little message pop up informing me that it was my 7th Bloggiversary

Now, as someone who still thinks 2019 was a couple of months ago, this came as a real shock.

Have I really been blogging for almost 10 years?

What can I say except Smash Mouth was right. The years start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’—

A blog I follow, The Orangutan Librarian, recently celebrated her blogoversy and, in her commemorative post she took a look back at all of her previous reviews to see which evaluations she stood by and which she felt she got wrong.

This inspired me to reread some of my older posts to see how I feel about my own previous works and examine what opinions I stand by to this day.

The answer is all of them.

I stand by all my criticisms.

I still think Kataang and Maiko are horrible ships, and I still think Invisible Girl is a subpar novel.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around why my biggest claim to fame right now is my controversial opinion about cartoon couples from a TV show that ended over 15 years ago, but the world is on fire right now, so who can say?

That being said, do I have any regrets?

Yes.

I regret taking an ungodly long time responding to comments. I don’t know why, but I have this weird habit of leaving people in silence for ages after they comment. Don’t ask me why I do this. I’m still trying to figure it out.

Maybe it’s because if I reply too quickly they will see how desperate I am for human companionship.

Okay, okay, not really.

I think I am just worried I may say something that might be offensive to someone and so I leave them to awkwardly stand in the dark until I can think of something to say in return. It’s a silly concern, but there it is.

I regret also that I haven’t posted enough over the years. Yes, I’ve churned out more than a dozen posts a year, but compared to people that really grind, that’s hardly anything. I’m solving that problem now (for better or worse), but it’s still a struggle to stick to a deadline.

I regret that I haven’t been as active in engaging with other writers’ content. I’ve been far too content occupying my own bubble and finding my own niche that I have forgotten that I need to interact with others and expand my horizons.

Lastly, I regret that I focused more on numbers and increasing those numbers rather than just enjoying the ride.

I think it’s natural to get caught up in how many followers you have and forget to just have fun sometimes. Because that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. Mostly because nobody knows what the hell is going on at any point and time and nobody knows why anyone likes anything or why and having a “platform” doesn’t actually translate to having high-sales as it turns out.

In all seriousness, even though I don’t have thousands of followers, even though people aren’t hanging on my every word, I am ultimately glad I started this blog. It has been a great outlet for my creativity and has given me the opportunity to interact with some really cool people.

I am very grateful to everyone who choses to read my posts, and I’m especially grateful to the 10% of you who are not bot accounts.

I look forward to another 7 years with you guys. Provided the internet hasn’t been completely sanctioned by our corporate overlords who will forbid any kind of speech that doesn’t involve product placement or Coca-Cola .

See you in the next one!