Reflecting on a Year of Blogging

Today, I’m celebrating a year of blogging!

Technically, my blogging anniversary would have been sometime in June. However, this time one year ago was when I really started to get into this blog, and began to post regularly, rather than writing one thing and then nothing for months on end. So I’m celebrating today, because it feels right to me.

Since I started blogging, I’ve written seventy-five posts, totaling fifty-five thousand words. That amount of words actually makes me feel extraordinarily accomplished! And a lot less worried about the idea of writing a PhD thesis one day. I’ve got 405 comments (including my own replies, so actually less), and have managed to scrape together eighty-eight followers. That’s a pretty decent number for a niche blog, I think! In terms of hits, the total is currently at 25, 222, and my monthly average has gone up from about one thousand to 3,800.

It’s been pretty astounding to see so many people reading my blog, and enjoying what they read. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind as well. Part of me can’t believe that I’ve actually been blogging for a whole year, and have managed to keep it up. Part of me is amazed that it’s only been a year, because it feels like forever. Part of me feels like it was just yesterday that I started blogging at all, because they days and the posts all run together in my mind.

Some of the posts I’ve written I’ve agonised over, both in the thinking and in the writing. Some of them have been deeply personal, like some of the posts on asexuality. I’ve come out to family through them. Hey, my very first post on asexuality was a way of coming out to myself, because I’d only found out that asexuality existed a few weeks prior. In truth, blogging about asexuality has been one of the main factors contributing to me feeling comfortable in my identity, and being able to express it. I’m not sure what I would have done without it.

I think the other main aspect of my blogging has been how it’s made me grow as a feminist. I still can’t profess to know answers to all the questions, or even to fully understand all the issues. If anything, I feel like there are now more questions I need to think about than ever. I’ve changed my mind about things. I’ve changed it back. I’ve decided that maybe it isn’t possible to know exactly what to think about something. And that that’s ok.

Blogging hasn’t just helped me out, though. Sometimes people ask me why I blog, especially when it comes to more personal things. Obviously, it’s come to mean a lot to me personally. But the other side of blogging is that every now and then, I get an email or a comment from someone who has felt that my blog has done something good for them. Whether it’s helping someone to realise that there are sexual orientations out there, or making someone feel that they’re not alone in seeing some of the crap patriarchy throws at us, every one of those comments makes me deeply happy. When I was starting out with feminism and exploring asexual identities, I found that it was blogs that helped me. If I’m helping someone else in return, then that in itself makes the whole process worthwhile.

And so, without further ado, a celebratory chocolate cake! And a new theme for the blog as well – some change is always good!

Chocolate cake with raspberry filling and icing. 🙂 I didn’t have any candles.