Yay, it’s my birthday!

But in addition to me turning 17, this is also a special day for something else - my blog turns 3! I started this blog back on my 14th birthday in 2004, right before my first day of high school. 1095 days, over 200 posts, several dozen emotional breakdowns, 10 or so websites, 3 unnatural hairstyles, four-dozen culture shocks, five cell-phones, my first concert, my entire Dance Dance Revolution career (so far), 1 futon, ~20,000 tracks, a few wasps, 1 pissed off editor-in-chief of Penguin Books, my first relationship, my first breakup, a screenplay, and 1 time coming out of the closet, I stand before you today (electronically, at least). This blog may have dropped off the radar a few times, but it’s never stopped being a blast.

As I sit here, typing in this very modern interface WordPress has, I think about how blogging used to be over at Blogger: a bland, orange-and-blue background with duller-than-gray text boxes; no tags, no slugs, no categories, no image-uploading features… The technology of blogging has come almost as far as I have in life (almost). But regardless of how much the software or user-interfaces have changed, blogging has always been there as a release for me, a way to get the thoughts out of my head and into a form which might help other people understand me a little bit better (how cliche, I know…). And it’s so much better to know that there are people out there that do read this thing, that do understand me a bit better than my average friend. And I want to thank you for that.

So now I have a challenge for you all (since most of you blog): write a post about why you blog, and how you’ve developed as a person since you started blogging. Take a look at how you’re different, why you’re different, and think about how the realizations you made while writing post #327 may just have changed your outlook on life.

Here’s to the upcoming years of blogging, and all the changes it has in store for our lives…

Happy Birthday Michael! I blog for lots of reasons, sometimes for strategic reasons, sometimes for fun, started blogging because there is only so much time even my infinitely patient friends should have to spend listening to me go on about prejudice and civil rights issues and the messed up MH system in Virginia and around the country.

Happy 3rd Blog anniversary too!

Happy birthday and congratulations on your blogging career!

congrats! keep up the good work.