15 Years of Blogging

The other day I was going through some of my blogging archives, reading some posts from 2007, when I realized I have been blogging for fifteen years. 

FIFTEEN!

My first blog was named "Weekday Wisdom." I started it in fall of 2005. I was 21 years old. I had just graduated from LDS Business College, and I was working at a special ed vocational training school. Scotty and I had lived in our house for about a year, and we didn't have any kids yet. My cousin had a blog, and he encouraged me to start one, so I did. I wrote on Weekday Wisdom for about two years, and then I decided to start fresh with Fluent Brittish, and I moved from Blogger to Wordpress. I shut down Weekday Wisdom and saved all of my blog posts in a word file on my computer. Those old posts died with the computer and are lost to the world. This is good and bad - good because those early posts were so embarrassing but bad because those posts documented my pregnancy with Nicky and early days of motherhood. 

My reaction when I read my old blog posts

Nicky was just under a year old when I changed to Fluent Brittish. That's when he became "Nicky." Prior to that, I used all of our real names (including our last name) on my blog. One of the reasons I switched to Fluent Brittish was to start fresh with more anonymity. I used Wordpress for about five years, and then in 2012, I moved back to Blogger and have remained here since. 

So, what does one do when one reaches a milestone of 15 years besides wonder where the time has gone? One makes a list of 15 blogging FAQs (but let's be realistic, these are not "frequently asked" questions, they are "mostly never asked" questions, or MNAQs). 

1. Where does the name Fluent Brittish come from?

My name is Britt, so I thought "Brittish" would be a funny way to describe my writings. I occasionally have people point out that "British" only has one 'T,' and I find myself overexplaining why I use two 'T's, and it just makes me tired. In all honesty, I don't love the name, but I've stuck with it. 

2. How did you come up with the pseudonyms for your family members?

Scotty is named after fishing equipment. Nicky is short for Nicklaus (though I haven't referred to him as Nicklaus on my blog for many years) after the golfer Jack Nicklaus. Daisy and Zoe are just names I picked. Eva is a shortening of Eva's real middle name, which is Evalene. It's supposed to be pronounced with the short 'e' sound (like 'ever'). You probably pronounce it "eevah," and that's fine. I'm not going to be mad at anyone for mispronouncing my kids' fake names!

3. Have you ever wanted to monetize your blog?

Nope. 

4. Have you ever had to deal with trolls?

Not really. I've had very few nasty comments in the 15 years I have been blogging. I am happy to occupy this small corner of the internet where I am protected from the eyes of online trolls. This is one reason I never want to monetize my blog or cross over into lifestyle or influencer blogging. That's not what I'm here for (though 21 year old me would have loved it). 

5. Have you ever thought about making your blog private?

Thought about it? Yes. Actually wanted to do it? No. But I did maintain a private blog for a few years just for family stuff. Instagram now fulfills that purpose in my life.

6. Have you ever thought about quitting blogging?

Nope. 

7. How has your blogging experience changed over the past 15 years?

Most of my fellow bloggers have moved on in life and no longer blog, so I lost a bit of my community. Now blogging has become so sponsored and centered around telling people how to dress, how to live, and what to buy. That's not the blogging community I fell in love with. I keep blogging the way I always have because that's what I enjoy. 

Also, commenting used to be a big part of blogging, and that's not a common practice anymore. 

8. Are you happy with Blogger?

It's fine, but I haven't branched out to other platforms to compare. Blogger is pretty easy to use, and it's free. It does have some annoying little glitches, but again... free. 

9. Have you ever thought about vlogging?

Yes, but I don't want to do the work. 

10. How do you incorporate social media in your blogging?

I have a Facebook page for Fluent Brittish so I can share links to my posts. That's all. 

11. What blogs do you read?

Just a few blogs of friends and family that are like mine. I enjoy reading people's funny stories and accounts of their experiences. 

12. Who have you met through blogging?

When I started blogging, the only people who read blogs were bloggers, so in order to have readers, you had to make online friends by going to blogs and commenting. I have met several blog friends in person over the years, but I haven't kept in touch with all of them. The ones I can think of are Isabel, Apryl, Amy, Becky, Jeanette, Heidi, Durga (see fact #6), and Erika. Durga lives in Australia, so it's pretty awesome that I got to meet her.  

13. Do you have any blogging regrets?

Sure. I've written some posts that I've gone back and deleted or returned to my draft folder. 

14. Do you hope your children read your blog someday?

They are welcome to read it, but I don't really care whether they do or not. I just hope that if they do read my blog that they aren't upset by anything I wrote about them. I have vented some of my frustrations with motherhood over the years, and some of that could possibly be hurtful to them depending on the lens they look at it through. The same can be said for my personal journals. 

15. Is there anyone you wouldn't want to read your blog?

As far as people I know personally, there is just one person I can think of that I would not like to read my blog. If you're wondering whether it's you, probably not. Are you an older male with a paranoia disorder? No? Okay, it's not you. 

Beyond that, I just prefer that no creepers read my blog. So if you're a creeper, kindly excuse yourself.

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Now I'm thinking I should treat myself to a celebratory lunch at Cafe Rio. And maybe buy myself some celebratory sweat pants and a book. And top it off with a celebratory nap.