7 Years

“If you keep a thing seven years, you are sure to find a use for it”
- Sir Walter Scot

I can't believe it, but my blog has hit the seven year mark today.  Seven years.  When I started this blog seven years ago, I never would have imagined that I would keep this blog this long.  Hell, I personally can't even recall why I started the damn thing in the first place.  Truthfully, I don't recall reading blogs before so what would possess me to want to start one of my own?  I am guessing I just wanted an outlet to write shit and figured people would just flock to it and respond back.  Because that is how the internet works, right?  You just write whatever and people will just show up and write back?  Ha!  I was so wrong and I know it took a while to get a decent group of readers.  I never did get a huge following, but I think I topped out at one point at getting 10-12 comments per post.  That's really awesome, actually.  It's great to know that people have something to say about something you wrote.  Nowadays, it has really died down and I only get a couple family members to comment plus one or two others.  I have considered quitting because really, who wants to write if there is no audience?  Well, some people might enjoy that, but not me.  But still, I find myself continuing to write in hopes that one day it will pick up again and frankly, I just can't give this blog up.

A few years ago I actually did write a post that said I was quitting.  Guess how long I was away from the blog before I returned?  TWO WEEKS.  Yes, I could only stay away for two whole weeks.  Shoot, this year I went two months without blogging and had no desire to actually quit the blog.   If you have been keeping track of our lives the last 6 months, I was just tired.  And sitting down and writing, even if it was just a quick note seemed like it would take too much out of me.  But no, the desire to quit never popped in my head and I feel fairly renewed again and know that 2012 will be a good year for blogging, comments or not.

It is crazy to think of all that happened in our lives since the advent of this blog.  Hell, when I first started this blog, I was still teaching.  Remember those days?  It's been a while but I sure as hell still do.  Then there was the foolish move of jumping from teaching into the real estate field.  Ok, leaving teaching wasn't really foolish as I didn't enjoy it and I knew I was already burnt out.  Getting into real estate wasn't even foolish.  I really wanted to do it, I thought I would be good at it, and the market was good.  Then right when I started, the market took a gigantic dump of epic proportions.  How was I supposed to know that?  And I did plenty of blog posts in that year that expressed my disappointment on how things were going.  It was actually a pretty damn depressing year and I bet there are some pretty solemn posts from that year.  So I flamed out at real estate, but if I hadn't taken that risk, I might still be teaching instead of the home business I own now.  Funny how things work out.   

It's been a good seven years, but thinking back, I can only think of sad posts I have written instead of happy posts.  In those seven years, I had to write about our infertility problems, the heartbreak of a miscarriage, the job issues, and the loss of both of Jessica's mothers.  I am sure there was more, but what amazing things happened to us to counterbalance these awful things?  Or is it more of a situation where we were consistently happy and there were just various tragedies that interrupted our lives?  Tragedies that we will never forget and will affect us constantly, but speed bumps in our usually happy lives, nonetheless?  I feel almost guilty for not being able to think of all the amazing things that I may have written about, but do fun vacations, good movies, cool photography, and winnings at poker make up for the bad stuff?  They must because even though we had all these things happen, even though I can't think of something that made me as happy as the other things made me sad, I still feel blessed and happy with life. 

Kind of ranting now, but this has been out last seven years and in that time, I am glad I had the blog to write it all down and record it.  Before Facebook was created, this was THE place where I could share and you could find out what was going on in my life.  Now that myself and all my readers have Facebook, nothing on this blog is really a surprise or breaking news.  Why blog that I won $340 at the casino today when you already saw it on Facebook?  Why post a new photo on here when you already saw it AND commented on it on Facebook?  Maybe this is why my blog readership has gone down, you already know what is going on in my life?  Regardless, this blog is a journal of my last 7 years and even though you already know what is going on in my life before you come to the blog, I have no intention of stopping now.  I have to blog at least 7 more years so that I can post the Guns n Roses song, "14 Years."  We'll see how it goes.  Thank you to all...