Anybody who watches my Twitter feed knows that I made the decision to stop blogging on WORD about a month ago, to use July to finish up the few posts I had left that I wanted to write and to glide to a graceful stop at the beginning of this month.
I've been blogging since 2007. I've written upwards of 1500 posts, almost all of which are either extensive reviews or detailed thoughts on posts. WORD has always been a part of my life, a huge part of everything I do. It's been with me through high school, through college applications, through high school graduation, through college orientation, through internships and the decision to double major, through my first real boyfriend and my first real breakup, through having guinea pigs to having a cat, through one bookcase to four.
And it's funny, because I started blogging by accident. I had never even thought to do it. But my mom was irritated by how much I talked about books and told me to take it to the internet.
I did. It didn't stop me from talking about it. If anything, I talk about it more. (Blogging did not work out in my mom's favor.)
Up until March I wrote posts up to five days a week - that's seven years of almost daily posts - and since I switched over to discussion only posts I've still been averaging upwards of two posts a week.
I love WORD. I'm not stopping blogging because I don't love it; I still do. There's nothing I enjoy more than filling up a post with something thoughtful, something that I know will get all of you talking, and watching as you do what you do best - talk and think and comment. And I can say that WORD has what no other website I've ever seen has: a thoughtful, interesting set of followers that has never once spread hate.
Not once. There's never been random angry comments, nobody baiting, no arguing or anything other than respectful discussion.
And I love that.
Without WORD, I can honestly say I wouldn't be the same person I am today. It guided me to what I wanted to do in my life. It helped teach me how to write better and how to read better. It opened up my eyes to a huge variety of issues. It helped me make friends.
I never wanted WORD to peter out, to disintegrate into a mess that I explained away again and again. If I was going to end WORD, I always knew I was going to do it the way I wanted: gracefully, before I stopped posting entirely and made excuses for long absences.
I'm going into my senior year in college, now. I'll be managing my award-winning school newspaper's website. I'll be working on my final project for my senior seminar, plus several personal projects that I've started over the years and put aside so I could work more on WORD. And I'll hopefully be getting a job within the publishing industry when I graduate in May.
And I'm not going anywhere, not really. I'm running YA Interrobang and I'll still be around on Twitter and both my YA and personal Tumblr, talking about books and loving books and reading books.
But it's time. And I'm okay with that.
I love you all. Expect to see me sneaking around and stalking you on Twitter.