I honestly don’t know how I feel about knowing that. But I was looking at early blog posts, and wham. My first blog post was August 1, 2009.
The day before I’d gone to the spa with my best friend Jerad. We used to go both for my birthday in January and then his. And while we were laying out in the sun, I was griping about my lack of writing. I’d hit a wall with writing fiction and just wasn’t sure what to do.
So he suggested I start a blog of my own, and the next thing I knew I’d turned this domain into a blog (I used to deposit sketches and videos here).
But it’s hard. July 31st is always a bittersweet day, because it’s another reminder that he isn’t getting any older – he died several years ago, and somehow I’d put it out of my head after his death that my blog had started the day after his birthday.
It’s funny, a lot of my friends now are people who remind me of him. Same drive to create, to do better in the world. Same weird sense of humor – he once did an entire spiel on the Jungle Cruise worded like a Dr. Seuss story. And I keep finding nickels where I shouldn’t, which is a good reminder that he’s still keeping an eye on me.
I miss him. But I wouldn’t be online as I am today if it weren’t for him. I wouldn’t have started writing fanfic and fiction again if it weren’t for him, too. And while the vlog didn’t start because of anything he said – it was definitely in response to missing him and wondering what he would have egged me on to do.
Because he would have been there, helping me edit videos and get them up on time. Harassing me online to make sure I wasn’t procrastinating out of fear.
For better or for worse, this blog is 6. It was originally called American Whitney (which you have to sing to the tune of American Woman), and now it’s GPM… but no matter what, it’s just me.
I am working on getting more content than just my videos up, scheduling in some time to make this work. I have a couple reviews in motion, some fun things down the pike. There’s a trip report for #BlogHer15 (spoiler, it was a LOT of fun) in the works.
To end this, here’s a picture the Oldest Kidlet took of me on our latest beach trip! Me and my skinny skinny arms.
(And as a bonus, that’s TheBoy down in the surf to the right. I’d know that silhouette anywhere)
Text Image created using Notegraphy.
All I have to say is … ♥ … and keep writing 🙂 Keeping giving us YOU 🙂
What a lovely story! I’m sure your friend is super proud of your blog and what you’ve turned it into.
Thanks. I went to a panel at BlogHer about Focus and Organization – and one of the best bits of information I got from it (it was about procrastination and getting your ideas onto paper) is that a big mental hurdle is that most bloggers don’t treat themselves like they’re their own most important client. We’ll prioritize the paying work at the cost of our own presence.
So I’m taking that to heart and scheduling in time for myself on my calendar.
I think he would be. He’d probably be rolling my eyes at how much time I spend on fanfic instead of original stuff, but he and my husband were always my two biggest supporters.
And thanks. 🙂