I started December off with the lofty goal of writing the Best of ‘09 Blog Challenge. It was an utter failure. I barely got through half the month of challenges before I gave up, posted two half fleshed out retrospections of the decade, and again had radio silence. Why? Why couldn’t I do the one thing that has remained consistent throughout the last twelve years of my life?
That’s when I realized that forcing myself to write something became like homework – and that was never why I blogged in the first place. A lot of people in the blogosphere are talking about how this next year is about hustle and hard work. I totally agree with them – except I’m not going to apply that to my blog. I’ll hustle where it matters – my job, my social life, my family – but, in the end, this blog was never meant to be a complete resource on things like social media, marketing, or the various other topic I write about here. This was supposed to be the complete resource on all things ME: George G Smith Jr. There are so many things that being “George G Smith Jr” entails, and this blog is going to become more representative of it. After all, I blog because I simply like sharing my thoughts with the world. That’s why I started, after all….
I remember my first real foray into blogging happened way back in 1997. I visited my friend Tracy, who was a freshman at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She had this snarky roommate Rebekah (I almost believe snarky may have been originated from Rebekah). Rebekah was probably the first true internet geek I ever met. She introduced me to the South Park Christmas Video (remember when South Park was just a viral video and not an amazing television show?). And she introduced me to her website – the now-defunct Rebekah.org. There, she wrote about everything and anything. She was actually quite dramatic, seemingly stirring up trouble here and there – but it was compelling. So I started my own. My friend Kim also started blogging regularly at the time. This was almost 13 years ago – before words like blog even existed. I haven’t stopped since – even if it went from geocities to tripod; livejournal to blogger to typepad to wordpress. All those venues, all created for the sole purpose of sharing my thoughts with the world.
So this year – my goal is return this blog to it’s roots: which is simply me writing what I feel like it. I guarantee my traffic will go down. Maybe I’ll return to the ranks of being invisible – just another blogger in a sea of millions writing about the mundane and not-so-mundane parts of their lives. I think I’ll find a better balance in my life this way. I think I’ll discover and rediscover the things that made me love this space. The things that make me happy that Vassar student housing, a teenage crush on Tracy, and ethernet combined to form Rebekah Jude Allen – the mysterious pale girl who I never met again and yet played a somewhat big role in my digital life.
So, 2010 is a chance for me to start back to the basics. A chance to reintroduce myself to the world of blogging:
“Hi – my name is George G Smith Jr. I’m 29 years old and I just moved to New York City. This is my blog….”
