While I was in the hospital, my blog received its 100,000th
visitor. I’ve kept a tracker so that I
as well as others could see how many people have seen my blog, read my
writings, and maybe have been inspired by what I’ve said. Over the years, I’ve done blog posts whenever
my blog has hit a certain amount of visitors.
I wanted whoever visited to know they weren’t the only ones reading what
I had to say. I’ve inserted sections of
each post so that you can see the progress my blog has made from the beginning.
*****
February 26, 2009:
I have almost 3000
visitors since October 26, 2008, and that includes people from all over the
world. People from countries such as Mexico, Germany, Canada, Norway, Spain,
Australia, Netherlands, Brazil, and parts of the United Kingdom are all tuning
in to read what I have to say. I'm also getting visitors from all over the
United States. I would just like to say keep on reading on and know that I am
happy to invite all of you into my life.
June
27, 2009:
Wow! Over 8000 visitors. I'm waiting for the day that the
number of visitors hits 10,000. It won't be long now. Maybe I'll have a party.
I encourage all of you to pass my blog onto others. The more people that I can
share my story with the better!
Thanks for all of your questions and support. You are the reason I keep my blog going.
Thanks for all of your questions and support. You are the reason I keep my blog going.
August
4, 2009:
I just exceeded 10,000 visitors. How exciting! Thanks
everyone for reading my blog. Keep the comments coming; I enjoy reading them.
January
6, 2010:
Wow! I've reached 20,000 visitors. When I started this blog,
I never imagined that so many people would be reading what I had to say. I
realize how many people I reach out to and help with each day passing. I'm glad
that I can be there for those who need a little support and encouragement.
April
20, 2011:
I just wanted to inform everyone that my blog has now had
over 50,000 visitors since I started it October of 2008. That's so amazing!
Every day I think about the thousands of people that are impacted by me or what
I've written. It makes me feel good to know that I can help and educate others.
*****
I also wanted to count the number of visitors for my own
purpose; to visually see it rise and remind me of the reason I started this
blog.
*****
On May 21, 2012, I wrote this blog post titled “Why I
Blog”:
I've
been thinking lately about reasons why I blog. First, it's important to know
that everything I say is true to me and my feelings. My goal is to share my
story, giving others a glimpse into the life of a quadriplegic. I want to
educate others about people with disabilities and tell those looking from the
outside that there is nothing to fear or be afraid about. No question is a dumb
question. In fact, I encourage people to ask and explore their thoughts with
me. All of these are reasons why I started to blog about my life.
Before
reading a friend's blog, I had no idea what one was. I was intrigued by the
number of readers and how many people commented on the post. I was also
interested in finding out how to go about setting one up. I've always loved
writing, especially about myself, so I figured blogging wouldn't be too
difficult. After researching a little bit about blogs in general, I started
creating a mine in September 2008.
After
figuring out a name and design, I made it live by October. I didn't know what
to expect and hadn't a clue the responses I would get. Pretty soon the number
of visitors started rising and I realized I was reaching people across the
world. I never imagined I would be receiving comments and e-mails from others
in similar situations just looking for support and someone to relate to. While
starting to realize the impact I was making, I became addicted to blogging. I
began opening up more about my life and writing in more detail.
I
knew quickly how important and special this blog was becoming; this is what I stated
in a post a couple weeks after starting it up:
"I
love this blog! It feels good to be able to express myself while others become
inspired by me. It is so much fun to post my writings and opinions. The first
month was going to be a trial to see how I liked it. Obviously, this blog isn't
going anywhere soon. I'm excited to say that I am going to keep this running as
long as possible."
*****
Over time I’ve thought about my blog and what it means to
me. All of the posts above speak about a
number; a counter that shows how many people visited my blog. I realize that I’ve been focused on that
number rising to indicate the amount of people reading what I have to say and
possibly being touched or affected. To
be honest it’s not about the number; it’s about the lives I touch and the
people I inspire.
*****
On August 14, 2010 I wrote:
Sometimes I treat
this blog as sort of a diary. It's not always easy to talk to someone
face-to-face but it's definitely easy to talk to a computer screen. As long as
I don't think about the fact that tons of people are reading my writing, I can
get out a lot which is good for me. Not sure that it's always something others
want to read but it's a helpful tool for me to get things off my mind. I know
occasionally I help others as well who are going through similar situations
with my honesty.
*****
One thing that helps is when I receive comments on my
blog about how inspired others feel when they read my writings. For example:
Kaylyn said:
"You're such an
inspiration, Jenni! Thanks for keeping up with your blog- I'm sure there are a
lot of us that like to follow your journey.”
Anonymous
said:
"I'll just come forward and say I'm one of these people
that randomly anonymously frequent your blog lol. I found you by one day
googling "Paralyzed from the neck down" on google images and your
picture came up with you in a standing frame. I believe this was on the easy
stand website? with a little blurb on your story. Anyway, it had a link (at the
time) to this site and I clicked on it and ended up here from time to time.
Mostly out of some type of curiosity.. I don't know, I may sound a bit stupid
or naive but I never believed a person paralyzed from the neck down was
actually a real thing. I thought it was only some type of fantasy scenario that
happended in a movie, T.V series (Touched by an angel-eque) or only was
suffered by the actor Christopher Reeve. Hence the curiosity about you... I
just was "pulled in" that you had suffered and were living with this
kind of injury and wanted to see how you were able to get on in life.
I was a bit puzzled how you couldn't be depressed and was shocked to see how normal your attitude was and how you aim for an actual career instead of just being "the patient". You're really surprising. You have even re-shaped a lot of my perception on disability.
I just thought I'd lay down my thoughts and reasons for
coming to this site. I'm sure your curious as to who your anonymous readers are
and why they come here. Don't feel pressure to be any type of inspiration or
anything to us.. just live your life. Update only when you feel like you want
to.”
*****
I’ve realized that another reason I created this blog is
so that no one would feel alone. So that
people would feel like they either had someone to look up to, something to look
forward to, a person to help make their life worth living, or just lose their
way in the life of someone else just trying to live theirs. Since my accident I had thought of myself as
a person with a disability-never the other way around. I always strive to look on the positive side and
even on my down days seem to find a glimmer of hope. This is my nature. This is who I am. This is the girl with The Site That Breathes.
Jenni
No comments:
Post a Comment