I’ve been doing some reflection about the words that appear here. About this space and what it means to me. How its evolved over time.I started blogging in October 2003 under the title “Kate’s Word of the Day.” Many of my initial posts were short and several pulled from email forwards (I’ve deleted most of those) or stories from other people. I accepted guest posts of widely varying quality. I posted sporadically and I was occasionally mean in what I wrote. Few of my posts included pictures because I was still using a film camera and it never occurred to me to plan far enough ahead to take a picture and get it developed and scan it in just for a blog post. (Digital cameras existed but I was a long way off from owning one.) I’m not positive, but when I started this blog, I don’t believe I even owned a cell phone yet.

Two days after my first blog post I went on my first date with my husband. Three years later we got engaged. Not long after I bought a home, which was followed by cohabitation and then marriage. (The last of which is oddly absent from my this space.) I have changed jobs, travelled around the world and both gained and lost loved ones – both family and friends.

So much has changed since October 2003. I view this space as more personal now in terms of what of me I share, but I’m also so much more aware of the public nature of what I write and its ramifications. When I look back at old posts, I cringe a little at how judgey and cynical I am, but I also think my writing was way funnier. I think my family all likes me more with my current style, so that’s a worth-it change.

When I started blogging, it was new and cool. Then I think it became viewed as slightly less-relevant medium. I’m thinking now it is post-ironic. Regardless, sharing and chronicling my thoughts all in this spot … it puts me in the company of many writers I admire and also has given me a wonderful record of my recent past.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.