Twenty years ago today, I started this blog.
Originally known as BlahBlahBlog, and later renamed BigPinkCookie, my first blog post was possibly my most groundbreaking:
These blogs seem to be all the rage, and hopefully it will be easier then editing the old fashioned way… we’ll see how it works out! =)
A thought for today:
“What we need in the world is manners…. I think that if, instead of preaching brotherly love, we preached good manners, we might get a little further. It sounds less righteous and more practical.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
This was actually my second attempt at blogging, after I was inspired initially by the Digital Divas to blog by hand coding an HTML page and replacing it each time I added to it.
Thankfully Blogger came along, and then Greymatter, and MovableType, and eventually WordPress.
As I woke up this morning, I started to think of all of the things that blogging has impacted in my life.
Without blogging, I never would have met a community of friends, many of which I’m still connected with today.
I never would have met my husband, Mike. Thank you Ann for that connection.
I never would have met Matt Mullenweg and named WordPress. (Hey, Matt? Remember when I thought you were crazy because you said it would change the world? Yeah. You were right and I was wrong. 30% of the Internet and still growing.)
Without it, I wouldn’t have started sharing my photography & had the courage to start a business – where I’ve since photographed hundreds of weddings and thousands of portraits – touching so many other lives – and my blog helped me connect with those people.
The lessons I’ve learned from blogging + social media + business are things that I’ve tested over and over again with others, and formed the foundation of my coaching business.
Without blogging, I wouldn’t have had 20 years of adventures. I wouldn’t be ME.
I dreamed back in high school of being a photographer, a teacher, and working with computers. Back then, you couldn’t have all of that. I never could have imagined the future I’d have, where I have been able to blend all three of those in to a perfect medley of my business.
Twenty years. I can’t believe it has been twenty years.
Thank you to all of you reading this now, who have read so many other things I’ve written over the years. None of this would be possible without YOU.
People I’ve visited, shared a meal with, spent a trip with. I’ve watched their families grow and change. We’ve supported one another in times of joy, and times of sorrow.
A community – completely unlike one we could have ever imagined 20 years ago.
Blogging made me believe that I could do anything.
My first photography clients, and my biggest fans, came from my blogging circle. I’ve traveled to England, Bermuda, and around the USA to photograph people that first came in to my life through blogging.
Social media came along; Twitter, then Facebook, and Instagram, and it all changed how we blogged. The posts became faster, the reactions and interactions more spontaneous, and blogging for many has evolved or faded away.
Blogs have evolved, which isn’t surprising for a medium that didn’t even exist 20 years ago.
Blogging is what made my life as I know it possible.