Celebrate 5 Years at The Rest Is Still Unwritten

January 1, 2010 not only marked the beginning of a new year and a new decade, but also my 5 year Blogiversary here at The Rest Is Still Unwritten. 5 years! Good God! If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would still be blogging, my answer would have been a sound no. Afterall, I registered an account with Blogger back in 2002 but never published a single post until 2005! Since it took me 3 years to even write my first post, I really didn't expect to stick with blogging for more than a month at best. But somehow, someway, and for whatever reason I'm still here. 1,825 days later and I'm still writing. As I creep up on my 1,000th post and have already surpassed 5 years of blogging, I will do my best to recap a bit.

The PostSecret card I created to thank my muse.

I’ve always said I write for an audience of one (myself) and I started this blog because I was craving a creative outlet in my life. That is as true today as it was 5 years ago. However, I would be lying if I said all the feedback (both negative and positive) I’ve received from readers over the years didn’t matter to me. It’s been a HUGE push to keep writing! You’ve given me an ear to listen when I had none. You’ve given me support when I needed it the most. And you’ve given me encouragement when I truly doubted myself. You’ve calm me down when I was mad. You’ve pulled me up when I was sad. And you even smacked my ass when I was bad. You’ve laughed at my stupidity. Rolled your eyes at my manwhoring ways. And you shared a collective aww when I said or did something that was just so effing cute you couldn’t stand it!

So for that I thank you all! I thank you for reading. I thank you for commenting. I thank you for the e-mails. And I even thank you for the friendships. Yes, I said it. It sounds really geeky and rather unbelievable to say, but I’ve actually formed some real life offline friendships through this virtual world of blogging.

When you visit my little corner of the web, you’re not just reading a blog. You’re been getting a glimpse inside my mind, heart, and soul. Which is often scary, I’m not going to lie. Little pieces of me. Some beautiful. Some ugly. And some just completely misunderstood. But they all make up who I am. Then together we sort out the puzzle pieces and make them snap into place to complete a new and improved David 2.0 (or so that is my hope).

In essence, that’s all blogging is - growth. Personal growth, emotional growth, intellectual growth, and perhaps even spiritual growth. Growing as a person in life and capturing it in written words. To me, that’s a pretty beautiful and powerful thing. Looking back at some of my earlier years in blogging makes me cringe! The way I write seems so different now that I hardly even recognize that guy from 2005. But I think that’s a good thing. It shows growth. Now for a look at that growth. In celebration of my 5th Blogiversary, here are 5 stats about my blog. And in celebration of 2010, here are 10 posts I've chosen to note based on reader feedback.

5 Years of Stats
Subscribers: 2,000
Visitors: 235,000
Posts: 1,000
Comments: 18,000
Twitter Followers : 700

5 Years of Posts, Reader's Choice
Most Hated: 8/22/09 - Tracy's Facebook Fuck-Up Gets Her Screwed Twice
Most Loved: 9/11/09 - Save The Last Dance For Me
Most Shocking: 10/5/09 - My Deepest, Darkest Secret
Most Controversial: 11/05/08 - One Giant Leap Forward And One Giant Leap Backwards
Most Embarrassing: 9/3/09 - The More You Know
Most Inspiring: 1/19/06 - 1 Second Added To Your Life, What Will You Do With It?
Most Intriguing: 1/23/06 - 101 Things You Didn’t Know About Me
Most Raw: 10/20/09 - The Manwhore Relapse
Most Informative: 12/04/09 How-To Avoid Entering The Dreaded Friend Zone!
Most Heartbreaking: 2/10/06 - Permission

As you can see, you can learn a lot about a person through blogging and even more about yourself. Over the past 5 years I’ve learned so much! But what really resonates with me, thanks to all of you, is that I’ve learned that I have a little writing talent and should pursue it outside my blog. So I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone and into new experiences/challenges that allow me to put pen to paper in a whole different venue. It’s scary, but exciting at the same time. Don’t worry though. I’m not breaking up with blogging. I committed 5 years of my life to this relationship, so I want to see where the ride takes us.

***NOTE***
Lastly, I want to thank my friends at 20SB.net (20 Something Bloggers) for making me a finalist for the 2010 20SB Awards! I'm up for for 3 different categories! See what they are and vote for your favorite bloggers here.