I’ve been “blogging” since the seventh grade. From age 13 to 16, however, it was definitely only of the “here’s what I did today/Dear Diary” persuasion, which, while it does have its place in every young girl’s life, did not produce any writing I am particularly fond of. However, the spring of my sophomore year I started to read other blogs, and I started to languish in the depths and intricacies of their writings, drooling over the visual aesthetics that was their backdrop. And I decided I wanted in. I wanted to expand my writing skills, I wanted to delve into the analytical side of me that had always been there and had always peeked out of my daily droll. I wanted to truly develop it, to make it something that, while useful to me in solving problems (even some I didn’t set out to solve), would be interesting for others to read. And so I created my first serious blog and titled it “Reaching Maturity.”

And I was serious about it. I wanted traffic. I did Blog Explosion every day for at least an hour that summer, and in the process, stumbled upon 9rules, and I wanted to be in, but didn’t dare try. Instead, I was offered a spot in a fledgling (now deceased) teen blog network known as Random Shapes. The community was great and helped me in many ways. Over the two years that Reaching Maturity ran, however, my zeal for immense popularity on the net had waned and I focused more on writings that I was interested in, shifting my attention to making blogging enjoyable again — mixing the new audience-driven style that I had developed with my old, intensely personal style, which is where, for the most part, I’ve arrived today. I don’t write about things unless I really, really care.

Today, I found out that I was accepted into 9rules. It was honestly a total shock. I had tried for round 7 and been rejected and tried again for 8 in November and in the intermediate two months had really given up hope on getting in, and was really at peace with that. I am really okay whether my journal becomes popular or not. That’s not what I do it for. I do this because I love to write. I always have and I most certainly always will. But nevertheless, being accepted into the so-called “elite” is still extremely encouraging. It means that my writing isn’t useless, isn’t irrelevant. And I can only hope that I continue to grow and expand my skills.

I just wanted to take a second to list the “9 Rules”:

1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.

I really can honestly say I believe in all nine of those credos. And I am exceedingly happy and above all honored to be a part of this group. I can’t wait to meet all of you and get to know you better. Thank you so much Tyme, Scrivs and Mike for this opportunity!

As an aside, I’ve been working on a new design for a few weeks now, I’m going to try to get it wrapped and up relatively soon, though with my new fairly heavy course load and the photography gigs I have coming up, that might take longer than I’d like.