I have now been publishing this blog since September 2011 and the next post after this one will be the 500th.
So before I go any further, it is essential that I say thanks to Marie, who is the real Powerhouse behind the production of this blog (isn't it always the way that is never the front man?)
Every word on the blog is mine but it is typed by Marie, she presents it, sources images, publishes it and shares the social media stuff. It would never exist without Marie, at least not outside of my head.
I can't tell you how proud we are that we got to 500. Initially we had hoped to post once a month and didn't really know what we were trying to achieve but I was very much of the opinion that I needed to 'ready..fire..aim' and get it going because I though I had a story I wanted to tell. It turned out that I did!
As you will see from a later post, i'm not sure if anybody is really listening but it was always intended as a diary to myself, me talking to myself and giving myself advice at low points or high points and also just seeing what I was doing and what I thought was important at that time.
As I look back through the almost 500 posts I am immensely proud of what we have produced as a back catalogue and hope that we will just be able to host this forever and carry on as much as possible.
The blog has changed, at first it seemed to be to give advice about things I found in dentistry and it expanded into authenticity and vulnerability and my despair at some of things I see around me. Traps I keep falling into in my own life which are just ridiculous.
It is actually a pleasure to be able to share your thoughts publicly, it's cathartic and the most joy you get from writing a blog is when somebody completely random comes up to you and mentions it or says "I really like your blog"
So it's not that we get a massive amount of traffic commenting on the blog (there is some through Twitter and Facebook and some directly to the blog itself, we have had 500 comments) but it is mostly when, like last Wednesday night, I did a Study Club in Shrewsbury for Richard Gatenby and he introduced me by explaining what a wonderful blog I have that he has signed up for and how he enjoys reading it. I had no idea that he did that, I don't know Richard well at all and we didn't talk about it afterwards, I was just quite blown away that he even read one line of it.
I also had a conversation one time when I was with my friends on a cycle trip and there were eight of us. It turned out that five of them were reading my blog, I genuinely had no idea about this and I don't know if they read it now.
I have changed a lot over the past two or three years, I have become more provocative, I speak my mind even more than I used to do and I am not suffering fools gladly, particularly ones that lie and don't walk their talk. I think that's where things will go from here on in and I think I will use this as a mouthpiece for the things I don't think are right.
If you're reading this now, I'm so grateful for your time I promise. If you have read them in the last 500 I am genuinely humbled and if you do see me around, I would love you to say "I read your blog" because it just feels really good that somebody takes on the message.
If you don't like what I say, i'm cool with that and i'm happy to answer questions or enter into debate about the things I put there because there is no point in sticking your head above the parapet and expecting that everybody will agree.
It was a cool thing to do and it is a cool thing to do. Hopefully with Marie going forward we will do this for a long time.
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