This is my 1000th blog post…

This is my 1000th blog post and to be completely honest…it astonishes me! One thousand seems like such a large number but it’s been step-by-step, post-by-post, and the next thing you know…here we are…nearing 8 years from when it all began!

I started this blog in 2010 and looking back, knowing how very difficult it was to get started and press the publish button on that very first post, it blows me away to think that I’ve continued to press that button nine hundred and ninety-nine more times!

From 1 to 1,000, I’ve changed quite a bit…my writing style, my parenting style, my lifestyle in general…it’s all different now from when I began due in part to all of the moments, experiences and emotions I’ve had the chance to explore and write about. I’ve found my people behind the words on this screen…the support and encouragement has been immeasurable…at times, a lifeline.

Through these thousand posts I started my life over. I went back to school, graduated, became an entrepreneur, travelled with my girlfriends, travelled with my kids, put my house on the market, took my house off the market, finalized a divorce, attempted a few DIY projects, wrote a book, sent my two oldest off to university in two completely different provinces, helped my daughter settle into an apartment in France to study a year abroad, attended multiple hockey and volleyball games, said good-bye to my grandparents, said good-bye to my dog, grew and dreamed and explored and much, much more. I cannot sum up in one post what’s happened in a thousand…as it took that thousand to tell it.

In an odd way I feel like this is a celebration. I’m proud and excited and half-thinking I want to bake myself a cake, order a huge balloon bouquet, pick myself up some beautiful flowers and head out on a shopping spree to buy something special to mark the occasion. I feel like I’ve accomplished something huge while at the same time…it’s just a blog post…nothing different than what I’ve done 999 times before.

I’ve been over-thinking this post for weeks as I’ve known it was coming. I have a notepad filled with a great many ideas that I’d write about including “What I’ve Learned from Writing 1,000 Blog Posts” to “How my Life Has Changed in 1,000 Blog Posts” to “1,000 Tips and Tricks for Starting a Blog.” Ironically, figuring out what to say in this post has caused me to have a massive case of writer’s block as I’ve put an internal pressure on myself to make THIS POST the VERY BEST BLOG POST I’VE EVER WRITTEN with the VERY BEST MOST WONDERFUL THOUGHT OUT TOPIC and, despite all of my plans for writing the very best blog post I’ve ever written…I’ve started and discarded a minimum of 10 drafts and I’m completely and miserably falling flat.

So…here’s the only thing I really want to say about writing one thousand blog posts that will get me over the hump and allow me to move on to blog post number one thousand and one.

I’m a story-teller. That’s it. If I wasn’t writing in this blog, I’d be filling the pages of multiple journals which is what I did before blogging was even a thing. I share, because I choose to. I write inside my head on a continual basis and often the posts are written well before they’re ever typed. When I’m happy…I want to write. When I’m sad…same thing. If I’m angry, depressed, excited…if I’m heading out on an adventure or contemplative about my past…the thoughts and stories need to leave my head and find a home among the pounded out keys on my keyboard or I’ll explode.

I write…because I have to.

I’ve written in different shapes and forms for as long as I can remember as I simply can’t fit all of the things inside my head that want to be there. I need a place for them to rest…so my head isn’t so full.

This blog, is the resting place for my stories.

That’s all.

Everything that has come from it…has been an amazing bonus to my life. The friends I’ve met, the money I’ve made, this career I’ve created, the clients and PR companies who trust me with their brands, the support of bloggers from one side of the country to the other, the confidence and energy and purpose that writing has brought to my life…it’s all been this huge, massive, amazing, fabulous, wonderful bonus.

But the bottom line is simply that I write…because I must.

To all of you who read…thank you. While I have a desire to tell my stories…it would feel miserable to tell them to an empty room. I truly appreciate the time you give to Curtains…I love that you follow me on social media, that you share and leave comments, that you chat with me when you see me in the street and that you tell me I make a difference in your life. It means the world to me that you’re listening…that you hear me.

On New Year’s Eve, 45 minutes after midnight, a wonderful woman named Andrea came up and sat next to me and let me know she was a Curtain’s reader. She told me something I’ve heard many times before that stood out to me on this particular occasion…possibly because it was New Year’s Eve…a night that’s held such painful memories for me for the last nine years…possibly because of the wine or possibly because I was ready to hear it. She said I inspired her…that I made her feel “normal”…that she loved my writing and looks forward to every post I publish. I asked her what I could do in 2018 to make the blog better…what types of stories I could tell that would make a difference and what she’d like to see more of or less of. Andrea gave me the very most wonderful bit of advice that was exactly what I needed to hear and that was…”just keep doing what you’re doing…don’t change a thing…just be you.”

So, to Andrea and every other Curtains reader who gives me their time…I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing…and keep on being me…as that’s all I have to offer.

And that, my friends, is enough.

Happy 1000th blog post…from the bottom of my heart!

xo
Colleen