{"id":3543,"date":"2021-02-08T17:30:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T23:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.wpengine.com\/?p=3543"},"modified":"2021-02-08T12:20:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T18:20:26","slug":"patting-myself-on-the-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/?p=3543","title":{"rendered":"Patting Myself on the Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many moons ago when I started blogging I really didn&#8217;t know what I was getting in to.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would be going to conferences\u00a0 to learn how to blog better.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would be a member of a bloggers group.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would have social media accounts devoted to it.\u00a0 It never occurred to me that I would have my own logo!\u00a0 But all those things have happened, and I&#8217;m taking a little time today to celebrate what I&#8217;ve done and continue to do.<\/p>\n<p>I say all the time that my blog is therapy for me, and that is very true.\u00a0 I work out a lot of thoughts rattling around my head by writing them down- I have for ages before I ever started a blog.\u00a0 Sometimes I have tons of ideas just waiting to be shared, sometimes I stare at a blank page for hours.\u00a0 Sometimes I wind up going in a completely different direction than where I thought I was headed.\u00a0 And that seems fitting because the same can be said about my life.\u00a0 I never expected to have another job in sales.\u00a0 I never expected to move to Iowa.\u00a0 I never expected to fall in love with blogging.<\/p>\n<p>But 10+ years later here I am.\u00a0 \u00a0There are days- like today- that I really am amazed that I&#8217;ve stayed at it this long.\u00a0 \u00a0I have spent a lot of time working on the look of my site and I am pleased with what I&#8217;ve created visually.\u00a0 I&#8217;m thrilled how many people mention having read the silly things I write.\u00a0 I love how many people want to know all about my cats.<\/p>\n<p>But most of all I&#8217;m proud of the work I&#8217;ve put into it.\u00a0 I&#8217;m proud of the times I HAVE been brave enough to share my point of view on topics that are important to me, knowing full well that folks I care about will strongly disagree with me.\u00a0 I&#8217;m proud that I have been able to be open about my struggles with mental health.\u00a0 \u00a0I&#8217;m proud of the personal growth I&#8217;ve seen and documented in myself in the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>So, thanks to everyone who&#8217;s been on this ride with me.\u00a0 I appreciate you more than you know.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m proud to say I think there is a still a long journey ahead of us together.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many moons ago when I started blogging I really didn&#8217;t know what I was getting in to.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would be going to conferences\u00a0 to learn how to blog better.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would be a member of a bloggers group.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t ever think I would have social media accounts devoted to it.\u00a0 It&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/?p=3543\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-its-all-love","category-myself"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/balloons-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}