This Blog Should Be Counted

I think it's safe at this point to make a comment about the progress off this small experiment, as we're nearly eight months in. And I definitely think it's fair to place this blog into itself as a uniquely positive experience.

Is it positive in the way we expected? I won't speak for Kate. For me, the jury's still out. I don't know that I'm generally more optimistic than I was before we began. I always imagined, when we started this, that we'd be searching for our topics each day, throughout the day, thereby creating a habit that would continue on after the year was complete. That doesn't happen. Generally Kate and I come up with our topics sitting in front of the computer. Not always, but most of the the time. And that is a practice that will end when the year is finished. So I'm not sure that the sort of lasting benefit we imagined at the start of this blog will be realized. At least not in the totality we were hoping for.

However, there are several other benefits that we didn't expect that we've reaped in spades. For me, the opportunity to write everyday has been enormously beneficial. I feel like I've grown a good deal (I hope) in my writing abilities, in my understanding of the process, and in my ability to share my thoughts. Never in my life have I had the opportunity to do so much writing on so many topics. Nor have I ever had the proper motivation to do that sort of work. Writing, in the past, say in school or at work, has often felt like a chore. And while I've always been good at business writing, I've only recently had the chance to develop a more conversational style. I'm really liking it, and I'd like to continue blogging in some form after this year is over.

Another benefit has been in our relationships with friends and family. I feel like we've gotten closer to a lot of people through this process, as we share pieces of ourselves. I can't tell you how often one of us has started a story with someone we know, only to realize that our friend's already heard about it because of the blog. It's really nice to know that people are reading it and that people are enjoying it. It would be much harder to do this everyday if we thought we were writing to a brick wall.

But probably more than all of these, writing the blog has helped clarify things in our own minds. It's been a good tool to shed light on ourselves for ourselves. I always laugh at the concept of "getting to know yourself". If there's anyone you should know everything about, it's you. But it's just not the case. Your brain has a way of obfuscating and muddling your own thoughts in such a way that sometimes you can't really be sure how you feel about things. But the truth is that you do know. You simply, for one reason or another choose to fool yourself. But getting things out on paper helps peel away the layers and get at the heart of things. Writing can be a great tool for self-discovery or, more precisely, calling yourself on your own shit. By writing daily on positive things, it's forced me to look at what I really love about life and what doesn't matter. That's probably the biggest benefit of all.