A New Year’s Eve Thank You

When I began An Island Mom last spring, in one sense, I was the unlikeliest of people to start a blog. I’m kind of a private person, believe it or not, in many ways. Really. But by the time I found myself waist-deep in the world of blogging as a reader, I knew, without doubt, that I wanted to blog. Because it finally dawned on me that, since I was eight years old, I have been blogging. It’s just that, until this year, I blogged in my head. It’s true. Since third grade, I’ve been narrating the events of my life and the events of those lives around me, just mostly within the small confines of my mind. It’s been such a regular part of who I am for so long that I was hardly conscious of doing it.

So, when I started reading blogs, I realized that there was a tangible form of what I’d been doing most of my life. Armed then with this realization, I threw An Island Mom out in the universe and hoped you all wouldn’t think I was announcing my positioning out on the very edge of the precipice directly above the land of Full-On Crazy.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find how many of you not only took brief pauses in your day but also decided, for some reason, to stick around.

I can’t tell you how honored I am, and how thankful I am, for all of you. I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to know that, as I sit banging away at my computer, mumbling and laughing as an much like an eccentric, delusional person, that all of you are out there, listening and (hopefully) laughing too.

And I can’t tell you what a privilege it has been to have met so many of you, so many of you who’d be sitting on our deck sipping wine with us right now if you weren’t hundreds or thousands of miles away. Some of you, with blogs yourselves, have given me first-class entertainment and frankly, I’ve learned more from you than I can say without using scads of run-ons and getting way too Hallmarky for a non-Hallmark blog. All of you have been the blessing of this blog that came entirely unexpectedly for me.

Thank you so, so much.

Y’all rock.

10 Replies to “A New Year’s Eve Thank You”

  1. Carla Campbell says: Reply

    Happy 2012 from one Island to another! You’re living in my old stomping grounds (teenager/early 20s) and I so enjoy reading about your escapades! Hope you have a healthy, wonderful new year!

    1. Thanks, and Happy 2012 to you too! If I had spent my teen years here, I would have been in heaven. As it was, I’d sit and hope for Lake Michigan to actually hit 70 in the summer so I could stand to go swimming. It was definitely a different world. Happy New Year!!

  2. I’m glad that I found your blog. Happy New Year!

    1. I’m so glad to have found yours and “met” you as well. Happy New Year!

  3. Here’s to a wonderful 2012!

  4. Happy and healthy 2012 to you, lady!

    I so love that you described blogging as something you were already doing in your head – I’ve thought the same thing on more than one occasion, and then I wondered if that sounded completely bats to say.

    Looking forward to more of your stories!

    1. Thanks. Yeah, I think it does sound completely bats to say, but I guess I’ve passed that point awhile back. 🙂 I look forward to your stories too, of pre-, during, and post-wedding drama & dive bars & life in the Midwest. Happy New Year to you!

  5. Yours is a perfect description of why so many of us began blogging. I’ve spent my entire life with the Truman Show going on in my head. I used to be a prolific journal writer, in which I would always think “Hmmm…I wonder how the reader would interpret this…” never-minding that fact that the journals were intended to be forever a secret.

    I am glad that you decided to take the plunge in the blogging pool. We are much entertained for it. 😉 Happy New Year to you and your family!

    1. Thanks. You are very kind. And hey, if you ever hit a writing slump, I suppose you could always pull out some of those journals. With a little editing, of course, some of your entries might make for some pretty interesting posts! Hey, I’d read them with bated breath. 😉

      I’m so glad to have met you in the blogging world. You were one of the first (sane) people to comment and let me know someone was out there, when An Island Mom was in its infancy, and I was wondering if I was crazy for throwing all my nonsense out there for all to see. Happy New Year to you and the five boys!

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