My Decade Collection | Kindred Spirits
One (presumably) cold Christmas Eve, I sat down at my family's shared computer and created this blog. I wrote a brief introduction and started bombarding the internet with stories of horrible things. At least that's how I assume it happened. It's been ten years now since that fateful day and the particulars never struck me as important. Sometimes it's even easy to doubt if this blog has had any importance at all. But we often doubt certainties (like our own worth).
I know this spot of the internet means little to anyone besides me. I run the thing after all. I see all the engagement and views things get. For a while I was fairly fixated on getting that number up. It climbed for quite a while, but sometime after the tornado a couple years back, it plummeted. To be honest, I think it was simply Google's back-end making it harder for bots to find it.
The truth is that this place is for me. When I was a child, I had such stage fright, I broke down when I had to do public speaking in front of my class. I couldn't stand being looked at, being in the spotlight. The idea of exposing myself, of putting myself out there, terrified me to my core. But from the day I started this day onward, I've gotten more and more comfortable with it. I've performed my poetry in front of people, submitted it places, identified myself as a writer. I've even posted and shared an entire novel as I was writing it on here (instead of hiding them all away).
I've met so many writers who hold their writing close, terrified of what others might say if they were to read it. They want to wait until it is perfect before sharing, but it will never be perfect. Eventually we have to learn that, if we ever want our writing to be read.
This blog has so many unedited (and in some cases unfinished) pieces that I've learned to deal with it. My blind rash posting at the beginning before I had the self-awareness to know it was probably bad helped me be less terrified of people's opinions. And, in the process, I've managed to put out some poems that have actually spoken to people, reassured them, and gave them hope. That's more than I could have reasonably asked.
I've scared people with what I've posted. I've had people read into works that weren't about them and get angry. I've had people stumble across poems about them (to mostly uncomfortable consequences), and I've certainly had my fill of drama due to the posting of a badly timed poem or two. This blog has had such an undeniable impact on my life that it's hard to believe it hasn't mattered.
I could probably go on for another ten years about what's happened in this past decade with this blog, but I should look forward instead. I still have to finish "The Beginning of the End" after all. It's been ten years since I started that too. I hope publishing that is the next milestone I celebrate. Anyways, until next time,
-Zero
Ps. I created a collection of poetry and short stories from the past decade, and compiled "Kindred Spirits" into a PDF document, one made to fit smaller screens better too, and it's available at the links at the top of the page. They are free, or pay as you will. Enjoy!
