Belated happy birthday, Ocean!

December 18, 2010 was my blog's 7th birthday! I cannot believe I forgot about it! Not that there's a need to celebrate it or anything. Haha! It's just that every single year, I never miss it. But for this last, that is! Tsk. I'm sorry, blog!

Yes, I've been blogging for seven years. Those who've continued to read this blog through the years know that I have made a lot of friends through this blog, so many great persons, some who have stayed in my life and some I have lost contact with along the way, some I have met in person and some I have only known and continue to know through their own blogs. Some of my blog-friends have discontinued, deleted or terminated, or just plain started to ignore their blogs. And, that's sad. The feeling is very like that of losing a friend or a friend you have been sharing things with and learning so many things from decides to cut you off his/her life!

I always feel sad whenever one of my blog-friends decide to pull the plug on their blogs. But, I can't blame them really. Not one of them. What with the busy world and, like I said in the previous entry, the micro-blogging age that we are in! Even I, myself, barely have the time and diligence to maintain this blog! But, I just can't give it up. Even if one of the primary reasons is sentimentality. Yes, I'm sentimental like that!

I'm thankful that I still have this blog up until now. Aside from my journal notes (on paper), this blog helps me come to terms with the changes around me and in my life. Going back to my old entries makes me know myself better. Have I become cooler? Have I become more interesting? I don't know. Maybe I was cooler and more interesting back then. And, this blog stands as the keeper of and witness to those times and versions of me past and gone by.

I started this blog so I can teach myself to be more free and more daring in writing and expressing myself. I remember when I started this blog, I actually wanted to keep my anonymity. Until I made a stupid albeit funny mistake of posting a picture of myself along with an entry. That was the time I first met Ala Paredes, who was the one who got me to start blogging, and I was so excited that I posted our picture together! And then, I realized that I wasn't supposed to do that, that I wasn't supposed to post anything that would give away who I really am. But, as they always say, what's done is done. So, from there on, I continued to blog not just as BabyPink, but as Diane to those who actually knew me. And, I realized, too, that nobody really cares about that! Haha! And, that made me more comfortable blogging!

I remember that one of the earliest readers of this blog was my friend, Balbonics. Actually, at that time, for a while we were reading each other's blog without knowing our real identities! And, it was funny because it was during a semester when we were classmates in almost all our subjects! Haha! And, there were Anj and Toni! I found their blogs and found them both interesting and I became a regular reader of their blogs and they of mine as we exchanged comments. Until I discovered that they're actually the same Anj and Toni that my friends were very close friends with! Such a small world, right?

There were, of course, the BisDak bloggers, the Peyups bloggers, the Rice Bowl Journal bloggers, and the Pinoy Teacher Network bloggers. Up until today, I've remained in contact with some of them. I used to be quite active in these groups, but eventually I became less and less active because of being busy and lazy at times. Those were fun times, though! I'd spent hours after hours hopping from one blog to another and from forum to forum!

And, how can I not mention Jim Paredes? His blog was the first blog I ever visited. And, I got to know him a little better through that blog. I left comments. And, whenever he dropped a line or two here, I felt like I was in blog-heaven! And, I'll never forget the time he tagged me to answer a music survey blog tag! I was ecstatic! Haha! I know he will laugh if he reads this. But, I'd like him to know that those times were pure bliss and some of my most unforgettable times as a blogger!

From Sir Jim, I move to Ala! She's the one responsible for this blog's amazing design. She introduced me to blogging when she mentioned in a reply message in Friendster that her father has a blog. It was an APO fan girl message that I sent to her and she was kind enough to reply to. And, it was through her father's blog that I found hers, which I found fascinatingly entertaining and personal. I felt like I wanted to have something like that and have an avenue to practice that kind of free-flow writing. Like I mentioned earlier, she was the reason I started blogging. And, I will forever be thankful to her for that and, of course, for this design, which is oftentimes, if not always, described to be very Diane! :)

I also remember the times when Blogger didn't have its own comment system yet, so we had to put up our own comment boxes from other websites. I remember I used Haloscan. It was actually easier to comment using that service and even when Blogger offered the comment page, I didn't want to get rid of my Haloscan comment box. And then, I found out that it automatically deletes comments when they reach more than a hundred as it can only hold a hundred comments! I was so disappointed as many of the comments on many of my entries disappeared forever! I miss those days when the number of comments would reach up to 30+ or even 50+! Ah, good times! Of course, I'd say that I do not necessarily blog so people would comment on my entries, I mean I don't really care or mind much if nobody bothered to comment, but I would readily admit that seeing comments is very encouraging and makes me want to blog all the more. Knowing that some people actually take time to read my entries and comment or share their ideas about it makes blogging, to me, more fun and enriching.

Oh, and another blog experience that I will never forget is when this blog was featured in Inquirer's YOU Blog Features (I've forgotten the exact name of that section). That made me float on blog-air, I was so happy! I remember that when the questionnaire that I needed to answer for the Q&A part of the feature was sent to me, I was wide-eyed with excitement! Still another was when I was named BisDak Blogger of the Month (I forgot what year that was, but I remember it was for the month of March). I was very humbled by such an honor afforded me because the BisDak blogging group was composed of so many great writers from different fields and walks of life, so many of them I admired and looked up to big time! It was overwhelming, I remember I couldn't believe it at that time. I couldn't even believe I was nominated. Really! Those experiences made me want to do better as a blogger. But, I also didn't really want the pressure to get to me! Hehe:)

So, this blog and I go way back! It has served its purpose and much more. And, I sure hope to make it better in the coming days, months, and maybe years still. The time may come when I'll outgrow blogging and stop it altogether, but I know that that time is definitely not now. And, I don't see it coming any time soon. *winks!*

To everyone who reads this blog, I thank you with all my heart! YOU are the reason why this blog continues to live! :)

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