Blog Turns 5!

On August 3, 2009 I made my very first blog post. It's hard to believe that that was 5 years ago! On one hand it doesn't seem like that long ago, but on the other hand a lot has happened over the course of the past five years. Time is sure a difficult thing to wrap your head around since sometimes it crawls at a snail's pace and other times it goes faster than you can believe!

I've been making fewer and fewer blog posts over the years. In 2011 I made 254 posts. Last year I only made 136 posts and I hope to at least break 100 this year (this is only my 65^th post of the year). I guess I'm running out of things to write about! The first several years I wrote extensively about my accident, and basically included the entire story. I've also written lots of posts about paralysis, answered FAQs and explored how my life has changed in the past decade since my accident and how I manage to keep a joyful perspective. I'm fresh out of ideas!

I also don't go out as often as I did several years ago, and you can't document adventures you're not having! My movie reviews have fizzled a bit because I don't see movies at the theater near as often as I did a few years ago. And I haven't had time to read/listen to as many books, either. I'm pretty boring, what can I say?! ;) I still stay extremely busy and never seem to have enough time for all of the things I want/need to do, but it's just stuff that isn't very exciting and therefore wouldn't make a very entertaining post. I still cover all of the highlights of what I'm currently up to and try to include significant happenings in the world and other things that I find intriguing or thought-provoking. Writing posts takes a lot of work, but I do enjoy it. I just feel like I've covered all of the most interesting stuff already and don't want to waste time writing about not-so-interesting things just to make another post. That being said, I do try to make a post every week to give those faithful followers something to read if/when they check in on my blog.

The best thing about blogging BY FAR has been the correspondences I've had with complete strangers across the country and even the world. It seriously fills me with awe when someone I've never met contacts me to tell me how something I've said on my blog has had a positive effect on them or has made them realize that they can get through their challenges and hard times, too. Comments and emails from people are THE BEST and are definitely appreciated!

I've had two interesting blogging-related experiences this year where I've been contacted by two random people who found my blog after searching the Internet for information on paralysis. The first experience was earlier this year when an author who lives in Germany contacted me because he wanted to ask me some questions. (He's writing a novel and his main character has an accident, breaks their neck and ends up a quadriplegic.) English is not this man's first language, so that was interesting. His English was pretty good, so I hope there wasn't too much that got lost in translation.

The other experience has occurred just within the past few weeks. A movie producer from Los Angeles emailed me to consult me about my experiences as a quadriplegic for an independent film he's making about a quadriplegic. I never expected to become paralyzed and I really never expected to be consulted by an author and a filmmaker. I may not be an expert on paralysis, but I'm happy to do what I can to help!

Blogging technology is amazing and it's so fun to be a part of the world from the comfort of my own home. Thank you to everyone has been a part of my blog these past five years, especially those faithful followers near and far that keep coming back for more. It makes all of the time I spend on my blog worth it a million times over!