I’ve been blogging a long time. Since September 2006. Some of you have actually read every entry, maybe even commented on most of them. Thank you for that, thank you if you’ve just read some of them.
The blog began when I quit my job and went back to school at age 50, working on a masters degree in Information Sciences, what used to be Library Science. I met a young man named Spike during my first semester. He was into technology and was putting together a host server. He asked me if I wanted to blog. I didn’t know what a blog was, but I like to write and I liked the idea of having a place to publish some thoughts. So he set me up.
It was kind of interesting and definitely fun to be back in school at my age with a bunch of 20 somethings. I felt both younger than my age and older, depending on the moment. I’d often forget I was so much older during discussions, but then someone would say something or do something and I’d realize I was old enough to be their parent. Perhaps their grandparent. In group projects I felt like their mother. I lent money to them to get home during stormy nights. I brought cake to the class with the snack break. I reminded them repeatedly that this or that assignment was not the end of the world, that there were bigger issues in real life. I told them often to enjoy the freedom that being in school affords. I luxuriated in that freedom myself, loving the public bus rides, the walks between classes, the work in public libraries where stories were always presenting themselves.
I especially like being in school at the university that both parents attended, graduated from, with most of my classes in the building my dad studied chemistry more than a half century previously. I liked walking the stairs he climbed. I said hello to them as I passed the house he grew up in. I thought about them when I wandered near the river.
So I wrote about school, and life, and my folks. And when I graduated in 2008 I wondered if maybe I should just close the blog down. After all, I was no longer an interesting student. I was back in real life and it wasn’t all that exciting. But I still liked to write, and I had a few readers, and while I tried to figure out what the blog was, it was still a place for me to put thoughts. To get support on life’s challenges. To offer my own support to others. To explore ideas. To play with the dog. To express sadness and joy sometimes in the same post.
1500 posts later I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. And whether or not I will ever make a difference. And if any of it matters. Social media has changed. Now there’s Facebook and twitter and a whole lot more that I don’t even know about. And going into the future I suppose blogging will become even more old fashioned. On the other hand blogging allows people to express complex, more complete thoughts than Facebook or twitter. It slows people down for a bit longer, makes them think a bit more. It can be elegant. And thoughtful.
Or not.
So I’ve rambled enough. This post was supposed to be something significant, and here it is all nostalgic about my student life. But that was significant. And I’m glad I did it even though I didn’t get to work full time at a public library. I’m glad I did it for lots of reasons…
…one of which is because it led me to all of you.
July 23, 2014 at 9:52 pm
You shall have a mutiny on your hands should you attempt to stop blogging. Just a hunch.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:43 pm
Might be a small mutiny!
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June 25, 2021 at 3:44 pm
I don’t know about that… 🙂
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June 26, 2021 at 7:37 am
Lol
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July 23, 2014 at 10:26 pm
We all have a chance to find our reader and get moving our stuff thanks to the blog. At least, this works very well for me. I don’t think it’s that important what exactly one does or writes about, it should matter to you, so it will to others, as well. I am also sure that it is never too late to pick up something new because those who keep searching and learning are always better off in many regards.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:44 pm
You’re right. If it’s important to me I can write about it and it might be important to someone else. You just never know.
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July 23, 2014 at 11:05 pm
Sometimes – oft times – daily life offers little opportunity for creativity, for expressing oneself. We focus on surviving, but we forget to feed our inner selves. Blogging does that, for me and for many of us. Does it matter whether we are “trending” by blogging, or if it is behind the times? Not for me, and I suspect not for you. It’s the sharing, the feeling like we’re having a cup of coffee together that matters. The feeling that I’m spending time with friends. That’s what feeds my inner self.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:45 pm
And now I can say I have friends all over the country and in some far reaches of the world! Just about wherever we plan to visit I can say…”I have a blogger friend near there!”
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June 25, 2021 at 3:45 pm
I’ve had the same experience, mostly through Blogging. Too bad that it’s less common, and some days I wish I’d spend more time on mine than on Facebook. It was wonderful getting to meet in person and I hope that we can do so again sometime.
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July 24, 2014 at 4:20 am
Congrats on so many posts. Mommy would be too afraid to go back to school. You are much braver than her.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Tell your mom it depends on the topic…if it’s scary or not. Lots of stuff is just interesting. She could do it!
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July 24, 2014 at 6:23 am
it made me smile – I was 35 when I went back to university to get my first degree and felt very much the mother hen to a group of much younger students. One of the things I quickly learned that made university easier….. was how much “common sense” just from being older played. I often pondered later that maybe we should let kids just go off and be kids – do all the crazy things that distract them so much and then once they are older – around 26 or so – maybe then go to university. I think academic scores and finish rates would increase a lot.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:46 pm
I definitely think a person gains more from college once they’ve had some real life experiences under their belt.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:51 am
What a cool way to start blogging! Congratulations on 1500 posts!
I want to go back to school to become a forest ranger…..
I wish I could blog more about my job and students, but I’ve stopped doing so, because it’s just too risky, even though I never used ‘real’ names. So, all those amazing stories have to stay in my head. Although, I have thought about starting a private blog, where people would have to sign in to read the posts, but then that’s not really blogging, is it?
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July 24, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Go for it Sara! You’d make an awesome forest ranger.
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July 24, 2014 at 9:02 am
This seems to be a bit of a theme going around our blogging community lately; social media, different apps and such, which ones are worthwhile, which are not. I’m happy to be part of this community, and I hope it continues for quite a while. Wow you are a blogging pioneer! Happy you are still enjoying it.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:47 pm
Yes it still makes me smile and I still think about blog post ideas frequently. Especially if I see or hear something interesting.
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July 24, 2014 at 11:48 am
Since I didn’t enter the blogosphere until September 2007, a year later than you, I’m certainly glad you kept blogging so we could connect. Everything you say about the slower, more thoughtful nature of blogging rings true for me, too. And I appreciate your nostalgia for graduate school, since I returned at age 38 and defended my doctoral dissertation on my 50th birthday! Office-mates young enough to be my kids? Check!
I’m shaking my head in amazement at your 1500 posts. Keep the faith, Dawn! You are important to us, your readers!.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:47 pm
I think my friend Karen, who lives up there, introduced me to your blog. Glad she did!
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July 24, 2014 at 2:05 pm
What a nice heartfelt post!
Snorts,
Lily & Edward
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July 24, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Thank you!
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July 24, 2014 at 7:08 pm
and US to YOU! Congrats on 1500!!! Have to tell you, I thought you were a BABY all of this time!!! (as in being in your 20s!) I am 58 🙂
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July 24, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Well I still THINK I’m a kid…does that count?
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July 24, 2014 at 7:09 pm
I’m glad you blog! It is like getting a letter with photos and memories, from my sister almost every day.
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July 24, 2014 at 8:49 pm
I like writing letters too.
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July 28, 2014 at 10:17 am
1500 posts? Wow!
I’m so glad you keep blogging. I love meeting new people online and sharing bits of their world. And it really is such a great place for friendship and the support that provides. Thanks for publishing, Dawn 🙂
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July 29, 2014 at 8:53 pm
I think there’s more than that but I lost some when I moved over here. Still..it’s a good number.
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July 28, 2014 at 3:55 pm
I am smiling that your blog was started by the invitation of someone called Spike. You have really done 1500 posts? That is amazing! Well, actually, if you count all my blogs, I’m probably pretty near you in numbers. Congratulations, Dawn.
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July 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm
I know. Who would have thunk it!?
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July 29, 2014 at 12:03 am
1500 posts strong! Congratulations and for it’s worth I don’t think we are outdated yet. 😀
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July 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm
Well of course we’re not. At least not in our own minds.
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July 29, 2014 at 11:41 am
Every time my colleagues and I brainstorm with post-it notes on the wall, I think of you and Cathy 🙂
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July 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm
Haha. Where I work there isn’t so much brainstorming going on. No post it notes either. But I know what you mean. A year ago I saw a car in a highschool lot covered in yellow post it notes. I thought it was a moving xxxxxxx wall. But I couldn’t remember the name of the wall. 🙂
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July 29, 2014 at 8:53 pm
Affinity wall! That’s it!
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June 25, 2021 at 3:46 pm
Congrats on the 1500– soooo long ago! In Interwebs time.
I don’t think I ever thought about how many posts I’ve blogged. Hmmm. Time to look–
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June 27, 2021 at 2:43 am
Step by step we’ve both posted a whole lot of interesting and cool stuff.
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