I started this blog in December 2016. It’s now March 2025. That’s 100 months - and I’ve published at least one post in each of those months.

Sometimes I get frustrated when I don’t manage to write what I want or as much as I want - but it’s still an accomplishment to celebrate.

A goal from the start

I don’t know exactly what I was thinking when I started the blog. I’d been back from the UK for a few months after leaving religion, started settling into new life patterns, and wanted to try something new. Yes, I particularly wanted to write about some of what I’d learned leaving religion - but I also wanted it to be a personal blog, not just a religion blog. At that time, I wanted to write about some of my achievements for the year, particularly with hiking.

But I don’t know how long I was planning to keep it up. I certainly wasn’t thinking about 2020, when I’d reflect on the decade past, or about 2021 with its fifth anniversary post. I definitely wasn’t looking all the way forward to 2025 and what my life might be like then.

However, one goal I set right from the start was that, no matter what happened, I’d publish at least one blog post every month. And the goal was set during Christmas break: I was on holiday, my life still had gaps left by religion, and writing was something new rather than a burden set by past-me. I didn’t know how hard it might turn out to be.

Since then, I’ve written hastily about replacement theology after spending most of the month exploring NZ. I’ve written about Covid isolation from Detroit, about Shakespeare’s Star Wars from JFK International Airport, and about the death of Queen Elizabeth 2 from Hawaii. All of those were at times when I could talk about living life being more important than writing about it - but I didn’t want to break the streak.

And so, 100 months on the streak is unbroken. More than half those months only have one post, and far too many of those posts have been published in a mad scramble on the final day of the month, but at least they’ve been done.

I don’t think I realised when I first set that goal that it would be the thing that kept the blog going. After all, 2017 I had one post a week, so there wasn’t a single month where I was desperately scrambling to finish a post. That has changed.

I still don’t really need the target as motivation to write, but it is what makes me finalise and publish. Without that goal it would be easy to let things slide - one month would become two, and ultimately perhaps publishing posts would become the exception, not the rule.

What comes next?

The main reason I keep going is because I continue to have things that I want to write about, and photos and experiences that I want to share (far more than I ever actually complete!). The specific topics I write about and the way I write may continue to change, but the fact that I write doesn’t. So I don’t think the blog is going anywhere.

I’m sure that I’ll continue to wonder whether it’s really worth it, and whether anyone’s really reading what I write. That I’ll continue to look at other prolific bloggers I follow and wonder how they do it.

I’m sure that I’ll continue to lament my inability to finish posts, as well as continuing to justify it to myself and to insist that, no matter what happened last month, this month will be different. That I’ll continue to shuffle my mental list of which posts are important to me right now without quite finishing any of them. That I’ll continue to set deadlines for particular posts and then watch them slide (pro-tip: it’s a few days to the anniversary of me starting the Great Ocean Walk, and a week and half to the anniversary of me finishing it, and I didn’t write all I wanted to about it last year. Will that change this year? We’ll see…)

It’s not just the monthly post, either: I’m sure I’ll continue trying to publish in the first half of the month (hey, like this post!). I’ll also continue trying for the elusive multi-post months, and to convince myself against all evidence I’ve got another five post month in me.

Looking further into the future, I’d definitely still expect to be blogging in December 2026, and I’ll probably write a 10th anniversary post then.

I don’t know about the 200 month mark, though. That would take me to 2033, and I have no idea what the 2030s might look for me or for the world. But I also don’t know any reason why I wouldn’t still be blogging then.

Not something I have to worry about right now, though. I’ll continue to take it a month at a time.