Blogging since before it was cool

I wrote my very first blog entry in November of 2004—exactly one year ago today. I was 19, and blogging wasn’t even really a thing like it is now.

During the last ten years, I have had 13 different addresses, owned 4 different cars, worked 20 different jobs, and dated and broken up with 5 different boys. I got engaged and married. I graduated college. I published a book of poetry. I wrote a draft of a young adult novel. I am a very different Liz than I was when I first started.

And the world has changed drastically too. This blog has lived through 3 ½ Presidencies, the legalization of gay marriage in multiple states, and the creation of Youtube and Twitter (yeah, neither of those things existed when I started blogging). This blog has seen the invention of the iPhone and the execution of Osama Bin Laden. It has witnessed the publication of the final two Harry Potter books and the entire Twilight phenomenon (books and movies). This blog has been through Hurricane Katrina and the demotion of Pluto as a planet. This blog began roughly 8 months after the Rosetta spacecraft was launched, and last week, that spacecraft deployed the Philae lander onto a comet—a first in space exploration.

Humanity is awesome.

So happy birthday, little blog! You've seen a lot. From your very first entry, where we talked about recouping from embarrassing moments, to your most popular posts of all time (this review of Midas Whale’s album and the true story behind a major controversy in the BYU-Idaho school newspaper in 2006), it’s been a good ride.

I credit my blog as a major factor in making me a better writer. I’m a big believer that regular practice does more to develop a skill than anything else. I have written 728 separate blog posts, on everything from backstage shenanigans at the Playmill to deeply personal goals and experiences. I have grown to love my little corner of the internet, even as the internet and my place on it shifted over the years.

To commemorate ten years of blogging, here are a few posts that I feel are good writing, or that are important, or that I refer to often. “Key posts,” if you will.

December 2009: Art Vs. Pornography

December 2009: Christmas is Not a Tree

September 2011: September 11 Memories

November 2012: Critique of “War on Men”

(I keep intending to write a sort of "Introduction to Modern Feminism" post, but everything I could say in it, I already said in this. So if you want to know about modern feminism, this is as good of an intro as I can give.) 

March 2013: Marriage Equality

December 2013: Winter Blues

January 2014: Lessons from Jigsaw Puzzles

June 2014: Transgender Mormon Profile (Grayson Moore)

July 2014: Rexburg Flood

August 2014: Fitting In

September 2014: Love is a Choice

Happy reading, and here's to another ten years! 

Thanks for sticking with me. 

Here’s to ten more years.