As hard as it is to believe, my blog is sixteen years old. I wrote my first brief Hello post on June 11, 2006.
When I first started, blogs were becoming hugely popular, and many people were starting new blogs. At the time, WordPress was basically a blogging platform with the ability to add pages, and I used it to add a blog to my existing website. The Wayback Machine has a history of my site back to 2001, but I started it a couple of years before that.
Of course, we’ve all come a long way since then. A large percentage of websites today are powered totally by WordPress, and anyone can create a site without writing a line of code. Blogs are seamlessly integrated into sites rather than being standalone entities.
As blogging grew in popularity, I became colleagues with many bloggers who are still treasured friends today. We visited each other’s blogs, commented on posts, participated in group writing projects, and encouraged and supported one another. Although the social aspects of the early days of blogging have largely been taken over by social media today, long-time bloggers have archives filled with memories of those days.
In a human life, turning sixteen means a young person is nearing the age of adulthood. In the world of the Internet, a sixteen-year-old blog is old—just like I am. I don’t blog as often, but I hope to continue blogging for many more years.