I promised the kids at my old school in Petrolia this past spring that I would work hard to get to my 1,000th blogpost before the end of the school year. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So when school was dismissed in late May, I told them that I'd try my best to get to that magic number by summer's end. Today's post is my 974th one and if I can do the math correctly, that leaves 26 more to go. I think I might just make it.
It's kind of strange to look back on all of the writing that I have done since this blog's inception back in May of 2011. I've written about so many things that I honestly have forgotten what some of my stories were about. It's actually kind of fun to pick a random selection and reread where life had led me to at that point in time. I still shudder when I happen to read a blogpost that was written in 2012 and find a mistake in my editing of it. Quickly I find myself taking care of a spelling or grammar error or two and laugh to myself when I remember that I'm only human.
Writing has been a good exercise and one that has helped me talk through things that might have been bugging me in one way or the other. I would say that at least a third of what I have written has been done during times of stress or sadness. As I read through those posts, I realized just how beneficial writing out your thoughts can be for you. Once early on, I wrote that I suffered from depression from time to time. I was afraid at first to admit that but really felt better after I had said it. I remember saying in that blogpost that writing was a form of therapy for me and I used it to help myself get through some tough times. I didn't know what people would say when they read it but I wrote anyways. Not long after posting it online, I received several emails from friends who thanked me for talking about it. They too had suffered from time to time with being depressed and they were glad to just know they were not alone. I felt better after reading their comments and so I continued on with writing about anything that was on my mind or weighed heavy on my heart. Hey, I figure that it's cheaper than medicine and way more effective. You can't beat that!
I've used this blog as a teaching tool with students in Kansas, Colorado, and Texas. I surely hope to find a way for it to be useful with my new 3rd graders in Oklahoma as well. A blog can be used to teach the writing process from its beginning in the brainstorming and preplanning stage all the way to its end stage of publishing the finished product. It can teach children (as well as adults) to use care in the words you choose, especially those that others will read. Once those words are published, it's hard to take them back again.
My blogs have helped me to teach some of the most important lessons of them all and those would be the lessons of life. By sharing my blogposts with students, they see that I am a real person who has gone through some bumps along the road as well as being blessed beyond measure many other times. I'm glad to share my life with them through the power of the written word and I hope they would be inspired to write as well.
One of my students from last year messaged me this summer and asked if I was ever going to stop writing. He wanted to know that if I did make it to that magic 1,000th post, would it be my last? My answer to him and to any other person who has asked the very same legitimate question has always been this one.
"I will write until there is nothing left to say, until words no longer come to me."
For the gift of words that help us to remember the good and bad times of life, I give thanks.
I've been on quite a journey since this blog began and the wonderful thing is that it's not over yet! Not even close.
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