Bonne anniversaire

I was feeling all proud of myself that this week marks my second blogging anniversary, until Laura wrote about her fifth birthday!  Clearly I have a way to go...

I initially started this blog because I'd become a more regular reader of other sites (Laura's amongst them) and - true English teacher - had thought, "I could do something like this".  My first post, on March 3rd 2011, said, "I've been reading so many great blogs lately, ones that inspire me in all sorts of ways: the music I listen to, the crafts I make, the outfits I wear, the books I read. So I thought maybe it was time to start writing again."

I didn't have any grand ideas to begin with, I just knew I wanted to write about the things that mattered to me: books, music, crafts, travel, family & friends, feminism.  And that is pretty much what has come to pass in the intervening two years.

I definitely go through phases in my blogging.  Sometimes I take - and post - lots of photographs (even if they are just crappy Instagram shots a lot of the time), sometimes my posts are very wordy and more diary-like.  Recently, as things have changed in my personal life, I am finding it harder to feel inspired or to find the time to write.  Ironically, this is coming at a time when my readership is larger and wider than ever before.  Ultimately, though, I'd be quite happy to blog even if I had no readers whatsoever.  Most of what I write here, I write for myself*, and I am not averse to spending a happy evening reading through old posts; being able to see what I was up to, what I was thinking and feeling, what I was reading or listening to, a year or two ago is one of my favourite things about this blog.  The past two years have been eventful ones, and I'm so glad to have a record to look back on.

Blogging has also made me a better English teacher.  Going through the same writing, editing and redrafting process as my pupils has given me more of an appreciation of how to advise them.  And it does me no harm to realise that even a grammar and syntax obsessive such as myself still regularly makes mistakes and typos.

I'm very grateful to all the readers who give me such great feedback; I really feel like I have got my own little blogging community around me.  My friends and family also regularly read and comment on what I post, and with family spread across four continents, this blog is an invaluable way to stay connected with them. 

So happy birthday to Words That Can Only Be Your Own: here's to another fabulous and fun two years of blogging!

* mostly: I will admit to ocassionally putting a post together with the thought of someone else - usually another blogger - in mind.