Just over ten years ago I was writing furiously in my journal after having a crappy day at work. I was into my seventh year of teaching, hated almost every minute of it and as a result had become severely depressed. One thing that eased the dark cloud was writing my thoughts down and I had developed a habit of buying notebooks and spending hours of my evening scribbling down my frustrations of the day. 

The Bloke, perhaps a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of my ever increasing collection of notebooks that had started to litter the house, suggested that I start an online blog. My knowledge of blogging was minimal, but I signed up for a free WordPress account and began to write. There were no expectations behind it – I was careful not to use my real name and avoided including too many personal details and discussing anything that would get me sacked should the school discover it.

While it may sound a tad melodramatic, it turned out to be one of the biggest decisions of my life. Within a few years I was able to quit teaching, and from that developed a completely new (albeit, totally unplanned) career in social media management. What began as a little space of the internet to allow for my various rantings has afforded me opportunities that I could have only dreamed of – travel, events, culture, experiences, and more importantly, connections with people from all over the world. Some of these blogging connections have turned into friendships that are important and meaningful. I have met them in person, stayed at their houses, had them to stay at mine, been on holiday with them. Four of them came to my wedding. I communicate with several of them almost every day. Two of them have seen me through some of the most challenging times of the last eight years, and I’m beyond grateful. 

As things have become busier (indeed, as I wrote this I was on a train to London as one of my social media clients was hosting an event) the blog has been pushed to the side, with the only regular posts being theatre reviews. The lack of posts doesn’t mean that I don’t want to keep the blog going or I don’t have anything to write about, it’s more a lack of time and on occasion, the inclination to sit down and write a post after I have spent all day creating content for others. 

And for the first time in ten years, my blogging anniversary passed me by, and the realisation of this when getting up at silly o’clock this morning for the train made me resolve to do better. 

Happy Ten Year Blogiversary to Suzie Speaks, and thanks to all of you who have stuck with me all this time. 

Here’s to the next ten!