My One Year Anniversary

I was right here, one year ago. Same campus, same job, same warehouse, same situation. My boss was away on his annual extended Christmas vacation, the week before Christmas to the first work day after the new year. The campus was vacant, barely an employee on the grounds. Skelton crew in the facilities department. The radios were silent, had been for days. It was cold, bleak. I was fighting off the winter blues, and a cold, the beginnings of a dreadful cold. I was alternating between talking and walking around the warehouse, trying to get my 10,000 steps that days, indoors because it was cold outside.

Donald Trump was president, and honestly, I thought he would win a second term, easily. People weren’t put off by the things that bothered me. Some of them were even enamored of those very traits: the bigotry, the unorthodox leadership style that I thought just meant he didn’t know what he was doing and was living out his fantasies about how a president was supposed to behave, the ignorance, the bullying, the big mouth.

There was no pressing virus on the horizon. The economy was fine for some people, the same for most, and horrible for others.

I was probably wearing the same coat, the same kind of pants, the same make and style of boots, the same thermal sweatshirt as I am now. Not much was different. I was watching YouTube, video after video, instead of using my time to talk to God or work on my novel, and I knew it. I was aware I was procrastinating, but I couldn’t stop myself.

An ad appeared for WordPress and something decided me. I want to say I decided, because that is an action phrase, but something decided me. I wasn’t writing a novel I could at least write a blog and get some writing in. I could do that much at least. If I couldn’t get off my butt, I could at least do something productive while I sat on it.

A blog wasn’t in my budget. I couldn’t really afford it, especially if I abandoned it, like I had so many before it.

I checked, and my name was available. My name. My blog. My website. My own website. It pushed me over the edge. I bought in. And posted that same day.

And, everything has changed since that day. Everything it seems except me. That probably isn’t true. A lot had changed since my last blog and this one. I had never made it a full year. I had never made it to twenty posts before I gave up. No, that’s not accurate. I forgot. I forgot to post in my own blog. I looked up and a couple of weeks had passed and I hadn’t even thought about it, or checked, or remembered to post. I had forgotten I had a blog.

It wasn’t until I started this blog that I even thought about those early blogs or checked to see if they were still around. I don’t remember what they were called or my sign-in information. Sometimes I wrote it down, sometimes I didn’t.

I think that’s the point of engagement, of engaging with other bloga and leaving your comment section open so people can engage with you. It keeps you coming back to your blog, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, because you have a reason to keep coming back.

Trump lost and went out like an emotionally immature baby, and I am not surprised. And I am. I thought he had some respect for the office. I thought some cell in his body believed in democracy. I thought he had some self-respect.

I also thought the Republican party would stand up to him.

COVID-19 slapped us good and we will be reeling for years. The economy is so shaky, I am glad I didn’t find a new job. I might have lost it and be unemployed right now.

And, I have an active blog, active one year. 99 posts. I didn’t think I would last this long. I wanted to but I didn’t think I could be consistent.

I didn’t think I would have any subscribers. I didn’t before. Even ten posts into my last one, I didn’t have a single subscriber. I was on Blogger then.

I have not made a dime. I don’t know why I thought I would.

I have not posted on Twitter. I did not start my YouTube channel.

All negatives. All “coulda, shoulda, woulda”.

I started my log last year and it is still here today. I did it.

This in my one-year aniversary.

I am proud of my blog and I am proud of myself.

God willing, I will still be here a year from now.

Thank you for reading my posts, for commenting on them, and for subscribing. It would have been tougher to do without you.

Photo by Lidya Nada on Unsplash