10 Years Later…

Y’know, I realized not too long ago that I’ve been maintaining this humble blog – in one form or another – for at least 10 years at this point. When I started, I was nothing but a wee high school student, barely getting my feet wet with HTML and hosting the first iteration of my blog on Yahoo Geocities because it was free. Now I’m a full half-decade out of college, and as far as this website is concerned, I’d like to believe my skills have “leveled-up” in the intervening years. Words with Jeff is now professionally hosted, maintained using WordPress, and even has its own logo (designed by yours truly). Even if the content isn’t updated as frequently as I’d hope, at least I can be proud of how far the site has come from its pre-Cambrian origins.

Of course, this last part begs the question: if I’m not updating this blog with any real regularity, why do I even bother with the whole charade? Or put another way: why do I write?

I write because it’s what I do. That’s a tautology, I know, but it’s also true. I’m a writer, and as a result writing is something my body craves. Multiple times a week, I conceive of some new topic to discuss with you, my readers, if only I could put pen to paper in a way that accurately reflected the ideas in my head. More to the point, however, my goal for this blog – and the challenge for myself – is to paint a portrait of myself through words. I want any new reader to be able to go back through my archives and come out with an understanding of who I am. That’s not an easy thing to do, as I’ve come to find the past few years. Add to that my penchant for perfectionism, and the end result is a rather lackluster back-catalog of writing. My Evernote account is littered with half-finished blog posts, many of which I hope will one day see publication.

And maybe they will! The year is still young, and for the first time in a long while, my life seems to be headed in a good direction (perhaps I’ll tell you all more about that later). To all my loyal readers (yes, all three of you) who’ve stuck with me over the years and put up with my erratic and frequently infrequent posting schedule: thanks! Simply put, you’re the best!

The last 10 years on the Interwebs has been a blast. Here’s to the next 10 years!