A Reflection

This is my 499th post, tomorrow will be my 500th.  I've never celebrated a Blogoversay before and actually didn't know that was a thing until I started reading other people's blogs and seeing them celebrate theirs.  My blogoversay isn't until next month but 500 posts, I think, is a pretty big deal and deserves recognition.  But since tomorrow is already slated for IWSG, I'm going to be doing my 500th post reflections here.  And so, I present to you:

The history of Bev the Blogger in 5 absurdly truncated steps:

1)  The blog starts.  Bev writes.  She and one other person read it, no one else knows it exists.  She seriously consideres, more than once, just ending the thing completely.  The blog exists in limbo.  (This denotes the first 2 to 2.5 years of the blog’s existence).  It is a very sad time for Bev.

2)  Bev submits her first story for Friday Flash.  Other writers read it.  They say nice things.  But Bev is still largely isolated due to irregular submissions and no other outlets.  (This denotes the next 0.5 to 1 year of the blog).  Bev is hopeful, but still plagued by doubt.

3) Bev discovers Am Writing.  Then the A to Z Challenge.  Then Celebrate the Small Things.  Then IWSG.  Then a whole array of other fun, helpful, supportive blog hops.  Then signing up to do book reviews, host author interviews and use the blog as an avenue to spread the word about other writers.

Every day she posts, she is exposed to more writers, more potential blog hops, and more positive comments from wickedly awesome people who blow her mind with how nice they are.  Connections on Twitter, Google+ and other networking modalities explode.  (This denotes the past 3-4 months of the blog’s existence, so it’s a pretty recent phenomenon).  Bev vibrates right out of her chair with excitement.

4) Bev decides it’s time to try to get published.  A whole host of old fears she’s been able to keep at bay thanks to consistent positive feedback from supportive bloggers start to crop up again.  But logic dictates that they are no more rational than any of the other fears she has been able to overcome whilst blogging so much, so tries anyway.  She enters writing competitions.  She submits her poetry.  She scans the web for calls for submission.  She blogs, almost everyday, and allows herself to experiment more with her writing than she ever has before.  She starts to (finally) think of herself as a writer after refusing that label for years.  She hits her 500^th post on her blog.

5) ...?

And now, I will stop talking about myself in the 3rd person and ask you to join me in celebrating my soon-to-be 500th post.

I know it's not technically till tomorrow, and I'll probably mention it again in my IWSG post.  But given the upcoming holiday I figured the graphic should have a place, so it's here.  And here I will say, officially, YAY ME!

A GIANT, genuinely heart-felt "THANKS!" to all of you for reading, commenting, connecting and supporting me.  My growth as a blogger is due largely to you.  And I couldn't be more grateful.