17 Years of Blogging—and Memories of Being 17 Years Old

Happy 17th Blogiversary to me! I know no one blogs anymore, but I'll keep showing up here once in a while as long as you'll have me. It's so funny to look back at the early years of this blog, before there was such a thing as social media! I sometimes posted a few times a day, even just a one-liner or a photo, but of course now I do that stuff on Twitter and Instagram. (And Facebook to a lesser extent; I would really like to be done with that but feel it's a necessary evil for certain things, like my editors' group, community and civic organizations, digging up old friends—and getting dug up!)

Speaking of the past, I did a deep dive into mine about a week ago. In my office I have a Big Box o' Memories that I hadn't opened up in years. I finally did and am still going through its contents. I haven't yet looked at the piles of old photos, nor have I read the many letters, from friends, old beaus, even myself (letters and postcards I wrote home from camp or college or travel). I hope to dig in to those next weekend. But what I did do was read every word of every journal I kept from age 16 to 21. Five years' worth of cringe-worthy soul-searching and drivel, with the occasional mind-blowing insight or hilarious take on something. Because of the excruciating cringe factor, plus the fact that they were filled with secrets (not all mine), I then proceeded to shred every one of them. It was positively exhilarating. I ended up with several bags full:

As those of you on Instagram already know, I then put out my recycling bin on the windiest day in recorded history, and it blew over, dispersing the shreds of my adolescence all over the neighborhood—and, for all I know, the world. I am still finding shreds in the yard, in the last of the snow, in the garden, in the bushes... I won't be surprised to come across a few come spring, or even summer.

While I read, I did come across some entries that caused me to want to try to find some old friends—particularly some of the other American students on my study-abroad program in London—and I intend to do that. And then a weird thing happened: The night after all the shredding, an old camp friend who had been mentioned in passing a couple of times in the journals friended me on Facebook! We've all had those creepy experiences where you mention to someone that you're thinking of buying something and then almost immediately ads start showing up in your social media feeds for that very thing. This felt similar. I asked him how he thought to contact me after 40+ (!) years, and he said my name just popped up in the "People you might know" list. <cue "Twilight Zone" theme>

I did not shred my childhood diaries, which are filled with fabulous entries like this one:

Stay tuned for more thrilling installments!

 

Comments

[Margaret]

Flowered bell bottoms! I probably had some too. I still blog and know many who continue to do so. Social media is sometimes nice to have, but it doesn't fulfill the need to truly write.

[Karen]

I agree. I wish I had (read: made) more time to do it, frankly.

[Beth F]

Love the diary entry!!! I too have (as I'm sure you noticed) slowed down on my blogging. Still, I plan to do a cooking thing a few times a month and a few other posts whenever I feel like it.

[Algot Runeman]

There *has* been a tendency to jump onto the latest thing. I do hope you decide that this mid-range writing opportunity is worth your effort.