ParisLemon” recently (the tumblog of former tech journalist MG Siegler), it occurred to me that a rather significant milestone is approaching - as 2011 becomes 2012, my blog will be 9 years old.
In reality it’s probably a little over 10 years old - but I only have record of the posts going back 9 years - and then only by accident. I’ve been hilariously lackadaisical in terms of looking after the canon of words.Until very recently I only had records going back to 2005 - and then discovered a backup tucked away containing another couple of years worth (perhaps this proves the point about “keeping hold of stuff just in case”). I can’t even publish it all at wordpress.com because all manner of alarms will be set off - relegating me to the legions of spammers and SEO morons that pollute the internet.
Rather than continue fighting the various platforms to make the words I have written in the past available, I think perhaps it’s more useful to just carry on writing. There’s one thing that “carrying on” doesn’t change though; nine years is a long time.
I’ve been trying to recall the various things that have occurred over that time;
I stopped writing several times. In the early days it was because I didn’t have much of a filter - I wrote about things I should not have, and got into commensurate amounts of trouble as a result. I discovered I can’t have children, and wrote about that entire journey - being on national television talking about it, feeling lost, carrying on… The several IVF cycles we went through - the highs, the lows, and the horrific weekend we lost the unborn baby. The night we talked about adoption seriously for the first time, and W realised how worried I had been during the final IVF attempt (she was sick for the better part of a year afterwards). The entire adoption adventure - the preparation courses, the review panels, the matching panels, the social workers, the machinery of the government, and the afternoon we were suddenly told “there are these three girls”. First days at schools, Christmases, Birthdays, days out…
Looking back, I wonder what I filled my day with before children. It’s an oft quoted cliche.