It's be just about a year now since starting this blog.

In keeping with my trend of reflecting on the past (I guess 23 mark some sort of pivotal moment in a person's life because I've been looking back on the past a lot lately) I thought I'd look back at my blogging experience in this past year.

First off, I can't believe I actually kept this going for a whole year. Normally my unfortunate trend is to enthusiastically start a project then leave it not-quite-finished. I have no idea why I do this, but the fact that I realize that I do it must count for something? I usually have the best intentions and a well-thought out plan, but I guess I have a faulty 'Execute' button in my head. Or I'm just lazy. I'm leaning towards the first one.

So it's been and year of online journaling, and never did I think I'd write so much, let alone share it with the world. It was always a kind of odd thing to do this blog, I used to think. People would tilt their head to the side (usually the right-side) and look at me with a puzzled expression when I said the word "blog".

>"A blob?" asked one well-intentioned friend.
>>"No sweety, a blog. In full form it's call a web log, like an online journal to write about your life and things you're interested in and post it on the internet. I guess it just became known as a 'blog' for short".
>"What's it do?" she asked
>>"Well it doesn't exactly do anything in specific. Just a web page of your own to post whatever you want".
>"Why?"
>>"Well...I don't know. Maybe cuz all the wannabe-cool kids are doing it? I never really thought about why..."

I guess I started this blog because I think of it as a way to have my opinions and thoughts validated and heard (in this case, read).

I'm normally a fairly quiet and shy person, so I now see this blog as a way for people to get to know me better and for me to know me better (how's that for being deep?). Ever since I was little, I've wanted to write. I thought about being a journalist at one point, but certain people did a lot to discourage me and at the tender age of 12, you don't have much cause to be stubborn about a career that you have over a decade to start. It's not that you don't think that far ahead in the future - it's that you can't. So I dropped the idea altogether.

Now that I'm on the verge of a career in law, I've gained a more vivid interest in writing, so thankfully I am able to use this blog as a place to carry out that faded desire to be a writer/journalist.

I find myself thinking of topics to write about at the most random times. Driving to or from work, grocery shopping, while working, and even when I'm writing a different blog entry. It might make you sad (or amused) to know that I actually start to mentally write the damn post that I come up with at these most inconvenient times.

A couple weeks ago I was opening an account for a 73 year old lady at work when the idea for a post on ageism popped into my head and along with it a fury of sentences and ideas. But with the task I had at hand and lack of pen and paper to jot these notes and the fact that this sweet lady was asking me questions (and distracting me from my distracting thoughts).

But in the end, I think I should thank the people who read all this nonsense that I end up being so keen about, whether you read it sporadically or regularly. Whether or not you comment, it makes all the difference in the world to me that you take the time out of you day to hop over to my humble blog, out of all the millions you could go to, just to read my even humbler words.

I'd launch into an Oscar-esque 'thank you' speech to end this post, but I'm afraid it's too cliché even for me. But I will say thank you to all you who are blog writers and/or readers - never did I think that a little blog would go so far.

- AKA

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Maybe I'll tangle in the power lines
And it might be over in a second's time
But I'll gladly go down in a flame
If a flame's what it takes to remember my name

John Mayer (song: "Bigger than my Body")