Today is the very first half-birthday of my blog. A quick search for statistics yields heaps of shadowy estimates and not much precision, but the general consensus is that the average lifespan of a blog is pretty short, often just a few posts. That leaves me feeling pretty good about the last six months. On that note, allow me some retrospection.

Good: The regular commitment to writing–something, anything–has helped me get better at it. Also, my life has a lot more interesting moments than I thought. As I’ve stepped back and taken a long view of the compilation of my experiences, the bounty of object lessons I’ve been able to harvest has taken me by surprise. It really just depends on perspective. Finally, I like having a platform, a pipeline to share my thoughts. I hope someone is listening because I love the discussion, but ultimately, my writing is my outlet.

Bad: Having all sorts of statistical information available in mere keystrokes feeds my hyperanalytical nature. I’ve fallen victim to temptation and check my stats more times per day than I will admit. Then I worry about what they might mean, and I’ve come very close to falling into the trap of writing to appeal to an audience rather than writing what I have to say.

I intended to take a the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly approach, but neither can I find any ugly, nor do I want to. In fact, I should replace ugly with best. The best part of this blog is that I love writing it. I love the challenge of fleshing out material from experiences new and old. Finding meaning in tiny vignettes has been fun and rewarding. And of course, I love playing with words.

I really don’t know if people read my blog for the content or just because they know me, but right now I don’t much care. (Okay, I care a little or I wouldn’t be checking the stats so much.) Maybe that’s selfish, but I like the way blogging is helping me grow. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

Happy half-birthday, Wordsmatter!

Oh yeah…You say it’s your birthday? It’s my birthday too.