Hey, didn’t you used to have a blog here?

Lately, I’ve been missing my blog.

I have had this blog since 2005, back in those heady, early days of blogging, before every writer had a niche, advertisers, affiliate links, and Five Steps to Make Your Life More Awesome. People just shared their lives, their pictures, their stuff, whether or not it taught anybody anything, linked up to any kind of blog party, or produced any kind of income. It was fun! It was great for a voyeur like me, who loves to ready published diaries and journals and letters. But somewhere along the way, blogging changed, and I no longer fit into it. I didn’t care about how many people left comments, or how I could monetize, or even if my blog was useful to anyone. So, “why bother?” I thought. “This ain’t my rodeo anymore.”

I get it. I get that people want to make money doing something at home, BY doing something they were already doing anyway (blogging). I understand that people have wisdom to share, tutorials, skills, etc, that ARE worth paying for. I read lots of blogs like that. But for the blogger, like me, who just wants a platform, a place to connect, it feels a bit weird to try to jump back in.

I miss it though. I wonder if anyone else misses it, too.

Just for the record, those old-fashioned blogs still do exist out there. Some of my very oldest favorites are still around. I am a bad reader, though—I never comment. I just consume.