Oh, 2009. A Year in Review.

Completely irrelevant-visually-stimulating picture that just makes me happy to look at: photo credit

I started this site in June of this year, after stumbling upon this post. And although I have yet to figure out how to live out of two backpacks on a globe hopping adventure, or even if that is my true goal, this past year has been an incredible one filled with ginormous self discovery.

I went from not knowing what WordPress was, to being a regular blogger. Thanks to this guy’s helpful advice and posts, Dreamin’ the Life was launched in June 2009. I’m still not afraid to admit that I haven’t a clue about many things techy, but writing each and every post this year has taught me something. Small lessons have revealed themselves, and huge lessons have plopped themselves down in front of me, refusing to move from my path until I deal with them.

My posts from this year have produced some large fights with people I love, life-changing epiphanies, incredible discussions, and helped friendships develop to a much deeper level with people in the blogging community, as well as people I have known my whole life.

Yesterday, my Dad emailed me and simply put one sentence: “You are a very, very good writer.” Two verys is like, a lot. Despite the fact that he is completely biased in his judgments about me, I’ll just ignore that part. I’ll take it as a huge compliment coming from someone who supported themselves and his family for the past thirty year by being a professional writer.

Another friend of mine said yesterday after reading the latest post, “I think I would read a book if you wrote one.” That sounds fairly benign, but since Goodnight Moon was the last book he read, I took this as great compliment.

Now, without further ado, here are the top posts this year according to traffic:

1. Go Ahead. Just Run Through The Fountain.
2. What If We Are All Just Equally Stupid?
3. Make A Move, Even if It’s the Wrong Move
4. I Don’t Want To Be The Alcoholic That I Am
5. Alcoholics Not-So-Anonymous: A Sneak Peek Inside My First AA Meeting-Part One

And, in case you missed them… these were some of my personal favorite posts:

1. I’ll Never Love Like This Again
2. All The Wisdom You’ll Ever Need
3. Teachers Are Everywhere
4. Everything I Need to Know, I’ve Learned From My Goldfish
5. How Learning to Be Positive Saved My Life

Going into this New Year, I’d love hear any suggestions about future content on Dreamin’ the Life. What do you want to see more of? More posts on addiction, more free flowing silliness, or how-to list posts? Less posts on addiction? The addition of video-blogging? (eeeek. that one kinda scares me.) A better design, font, or not-so-lame header? Please leave comments, or email me here any constructive criticism on how to improve this site. I’m open to it all.

I won’t give any advice on how to keep New Year’s resolutions, but in case you were looking for some, I was recently inspired by the great Penelope Trunk’s latest post on the subject.

Thank you to everyone online who has inspired, motivated, and supported me this year. Especially regarding this incredibly difficult post. The ability to utilize my blog to facilitate self growth, along with the outpouring of supportive comments, and emails from friends and strangers alike makes me eternally grateful.

Now, to end 2009 on a good note, I leave you with a picture of dancing hamsters.

Make sure you don’t miss out on all the upcoming awesomeness in 2010 by subscribing here. And if you are on Twitter, go follow me here.

Tagged as: 2009, Review