Yesterday marks 2 years since I started blogging at Relishments. A food blogger judge on Iron Chef America and an offhand statement from my sister seem to have forever altered my life. I know I probably won’t write this site forever, but it has given me so much that will never be taken away.
When I started blogging, there were a lot of things I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to self host (Relishments moved to relishments.com in September of 2009), use Twitter, write decent posts (sometimes I still don’t), gain readers or cook much of anything. All I knew was I liked food, I liked Food Network and I was bored. It’s amazing all I’ve learned in 2 years.
I honestly had no idea how many similar (female, college educated, 20-something) people were doing the same thing; I didn’t realize that healthy living blogs were extremely popular. It is an amazing community. The blogging community, through Healthy Living Blogs, introduced me to my neighbor Cynthia and the ladies at CDNY Eat Drink Blog. Who knew that some of my best friends would be people I met through my website? If you’d told me 2 years ago that I’d be flying to Chicago for a Healthy Living Summit or driving to Albany to hang out with other bloggers, I would’ve called you crazy. Yet I’d do it again in an instant.
Blogging has become part of my identity. Blogging keeps me honest and it keeps me motivated to try new things. I’ve discovered so many delicious new foods and techniques through blogging. I can’t imagine what I’d be doing with all my free time if I didn’t write Relishments. I feel happier with this site and what I’m doing than at any point during the past 2 years. I couldn’t have done it without my readers. Thank you for being patient with me as I figure out what does and doesn’t work for me as a writer. Thank you for reading, commenting and giving me suggestions for new posts. Special thanks to Brian for proofreading just about every post, and my mother who always emails me when she finds a grammar error. I couldn’t do it without you.
What will the next year bring for Relishments? I can’t wait to find out.
Blogging over this past year has so many ups. But meeting you and the other CDNY girls has been tops.
I can identify with everything in this post! I started as a girl who loved the Food Network (probably spent way too much time watching it!) and cooking, and decided to start a blog because my husband just wanted to eat it, not hear a recap of me making it :)
And then I found this huge community, of people my age, who enjoy looking at my food pictures and recipes as much as I did theirs! Now I can’t imagine NOT blogging!