Today marks the one-year anniversary of the day I began revealing some of my private thoughts to the world on a blog. I had no idea a colleague’s suggestion to start a blog for the purpose of communicating more of myself to the members of our church would turn into such a big part of my life. I didn’t know if anyone really wanted to read my thoughts and feelings, but I decided to give it a try.
I’ve had some heartache this year as a result of this blog. A few people I love dearly have misunderstood or simply not liked what I’ve written. It’s possible that they thought they knew me and once they read my blog, they decided they didn’t like me. Ouch. But this blog has also brought me great joy as people have commented on something that’s helped them in some way or how alike we really are.
I’m learning to accept the controversy and even discomfort others might feel at what I choose to share. I’m learning to deal with the shock I feel when someone I don’t know well asks how my debt-reduction plan is going or some other personal question they wouldn’t normally know about me. Oh yeah… I wrote about that on the internet for anyone to read!
I’m also learning what people like to read and what they really don’t care about. I’m also learning that people don’t always post comments on the things they like, but might tell me later that a posting helped them not to feel so crazy or alone.
There’s this addicting little page available to me called “Blog Stats” that lets me know how many visitors I’ve had, what posts they’ve read, and so forth. I try not to let my emotions rise and fall with the rise and fall of the number of readers each day. I’ve tried to let the page teach me what works and what doesn’t. I’m not always successful though. I don’t like the days of zero readers, although that hasn’t happened in a while.
I can only imagine, what it will be like, when my stats get this high...
I find myself wondering how many readers other bloggers have. How do I stack up? And how do those power bloggers with 10,000 readers a day do it? They say sex sells. Maybe I should write more about that?
Here is a list of posts you clicked on most this year:
- Orie Wenger – I wrote down some memories of my uncle who passed away in June of 2009. Many people loved him and losing him was a terrible tragedy.
- Ash Wednesday – The beginning of a spiritual and personal journey I have been on to cut out the excesses in my life and focus on just being a Christian.
- Strength of Soul – A devotional posting I wrote in response to Psalm 138.
- Thoughts on “Back to School” – This post created some serious controversy, which came as a surprise to me. I almost deleted it, but decided a little controversy was okay.
Hmmm…. None of these were about sex or anything particularly scandalous at all.
If I were choosing which posts I most want you to read, I think I like the ones I’ve posted recently the best. I realize that might be how I felt at most points in the last year. I’m not sure, but here they are anyway:
I’ve posted 54 times in the last 52 weeks. My goal at the beginning was to post three times a week, but I found that few people have the time or inclination to read three posts a week. I also discovered I would rather write less often and have something of quality to say than stick to a prescribed number of writings per week. I’ve written about sex a little bit here and there, but not much. I guess a celibate, single girl’s thoughts on sex aren’t that exciting, although I assure I have some many thoughts on the subject.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. I’m looking forward to the new things I’ll learn in the second year of blogging. If you have any suggestions or want to hear my thoughts/opinions on a particular subject, I’d love to hear from you. When you post comments, it makes me so happy.
Kimberly Wenger's Blog 