One year ago today I started out on a journey to be a consistent blogger. When I started this journey, I could have told you what I thought that meant. Now the definition feels much more ambiguous. Either way, starting this blog has been one of the most enjoyable and painstaking experiences of my young life. 

It has been enjoyable in the sense that I love being able to share my heart. I love the authenticity of a blog. I love the amazing people who read and share the blog. Without your support, I don’t know if I would have made it a whole year. Without your support, I probably would have flopped and just closed up shop. 

The opposite side of this experience is the fact that blogging on a regular basis takes some serious work. Creating and putting my heart into content has sometimes been agonizing. Some weeks I find myself looking for content everywhere. I think about the blog constantly, and I often use all my friends as sounding boards for possible material. I’ve also at times been obsessed with the numbers, pondering for hours why one blog is more successful than another.

Looking into the rear view mirror, I have now realized that I am the only person who gets to determine if this blog is successful. Somewhere along this journey I realized that my best blogs, the ones I’m most proud of, are the ones I wrote for myself. I think about midway through this year I finally realized why I started this in the first place: I needed somewhere to put my thoughts. When I accepted that, then everything else became a lot easier.  

Five random facts about twmilt.com

-    I have an amazing uncle who edits the blog for punctuation and readability. When Dennis and I teamed up for this project, the blog instantly got better. He is a tremendous gift to me and to all of my readers. Thank you, Dennis!
-    The most successful blog this year was Answering the Call, and the second was What I’ve Learned Six Months Sober.
-    I’ve changed layouts of the blog three times this year.
-    Since starting the blog, we’ve had over 22k visitors.
-    This year I’ve posted 78 blogs.

Thank you for reading, responding, and commenting. It has been an incredible journey and I can’t wait to see where God takes us! 2015 will be full of surprises.