This Blog Is Five!

Five years ago today I changed my life. Not to be overly dramatic. But I do tend to be overly dramatic, so holding back can sometimes be difficult.

But I can't help but notice the number of people who've known me for a very long time, who've recently mentioned that I've reinvented myself.

And on Easter, when I was talking about blogging, my aunt said that for a minute, I looked just the way that I did when I was little. I said that it must be because blogging helped me find my inner child. And I believe that it's true.

As you can see from this picture, I've always loved eating sweets. Luckily for all of us, I'm not quite as messy when I eat now!

A few weeks ago on Facebook, my cousin messaged me that one of his friends was interested in starting a blog and would I be willing to talk to him. I love talking about blogging! So I was more than happy to talk to him.

One of the things that I find so wonderful about blogging is that after you've done it for a while, it gives you the gift of self-discovery. When you see the things that you focus on, it's almost a window into your own soul. You see the things that made you want to take the time to write about, photograph, bake, and share with the world.

Of course I highly recommended blogging to my cousin's friend. But I did mention that it takes a lot of time and many people drop off after a few months or a year. When I first started blogging and made my daily blog rounds, I was truly shocked when someone decided to stop blogging. Then I started seeing it happen over and over and over. Then I realized. "Oh, this is normal and happens all the time!" Blogging takes effort and requires a certain amount of discipline. If you don't love it, the time is just not worth it.

Five years blogging has given me a certain amount of perspective, which is my new word and theme for year five. Wikipedia gives several definitions for PERSPECTIVE: the way in which objects appear to the eye; one's "point of view", the choice of a context for opinions, beliefs and experiences; the related experience of the narrator in literature, and wisdom.

It's really interesting, at least for me, looking back at the posts for blog anniversaries one, two, three, and four. So much can change in such a short period of time. That realization made me far more brave than I ever believed.

I'm teaching another baking class and fundraising for BAArc. Plus working on creating some other projects as well. As much as I rail on against Facebook here, ironically one of these new projects is a fan page on Facebook for this blog. I hope you'll check it out and "like" it.

There are always a bunch of things that I want to share and write about here, but that I just don't have time to do a full post on and Twitter doesn't have enough space for. This page will be a happy medium. We'll see what happens. It's all an experiment.

Yesterday, I watched this TED Talk by Ken Robinson and highly recommend it. It's poignant and extremely funny. He could be a stand-up comic! This is now one of my favorite quotes:  "If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with anything original." ~ Ken Robinson

So as I move forward with this blog, I guess I have to risk being wrong to keep trying to be original. Thank you for all the visits and comments over the years. You are appreciated far more than you know.


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Comments

SharleneT said…
I've always said, "Go ahead; all you can do is fail." It's been my motto because I've found a lot of people are so afraid of making mistakes that they retreat from ever going outside their comfort zone. No fun, there. I screw up, all the time, but have learned so much that helps on the next venture. Congratulations! Happy 5th Anniversary!
Lisa Johnson said…
sharlene - Thank you so much! Now I'm off to go do something (#11) on my life list. What a day! ; )
christina said…
happy 5th, my friend!!
xo
Lisa Johnson said…
christina - Thank you! : )
Nance said…
Congrats on your 5th, and I hope you continue to stick around...in whatever form you may take!
Lisa Johnson said…
nance - Thank you! I have no plan on leaving! ; )
Can-Can said…
Congratulations on the milestone of reaching your 5th anniversary as a blogger. That's an achievement. I'm 3 year +. Your photo is cute - you still look like your little girl self. Many more years of blogging and baking.
If I could, I'd open a bake shop somewhere in my hood where there is none.
Five years is quite an accomplishment Anali. Four years ago we were still one of only a scattered few and now there are thousands of passionate bloggers out there. You are right that it does take a passion for writing and is a self discovery means of entertainment.
Lisa Johnson said…
can-can - Thank you so much! Opening a bake shop is a nice thought that I toss around too. But sometimes I think the fantasy might be better than the reality. It's a tough business!

bellini - It's amazing to me how many more bloggers there are now. But when it comes down to it, I do wonder. How many will hang in there for more than a year or two?
Mosilager said…
Can't believe it's been so long! Congratulations on 5 years ! I keep wanting to write something but haven't been able to think of anything or sit long enough to write my way out of it. :( At least I keep taking photos though, so maybe that's going to be the plan for a while.
Lisa Johnson said…
mosilager - Thank you! I love the photos, so that's fine with me. : )

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