2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,800 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Odd idea, WordPress…kind of like that annual graph I get from my credit card company reminding me of how I spent my money during the year. It’s kind of cool, though.  It hasn’t been quite a whole year yet since I started this blog, but it’s close.

I saw this “report” and figured this would be a good day to look back on 2014 for a little while. These numbers kind of amaze me, because a year ago when I started this exercise, I didn’t imagine I’d find anyone interested in my ramblings!  But from that report, I see a few trends, and I would like to thank my WP “muses”…first of all, Linda G Hill, author of great stories and inspiration to many people.  I adore her One-Liner Wednesdays and also her “Stream of Consciousness Saturdays.” In fact, the stats say that I’ve made more posts on Saturdays than on other days, and that is because of these prompts, in which I find great inspiration.

Linda is also one of my top commenters and her site is one of my top “referrers.” So merci mille fois to Linda and to all of my top commenters (I think you can click on their names in the report to discover how awesome they all are!

I myself discovered Linda’s site because of the April A to Z challenge (which I hope to do again). That is a great way to find cool bloggers and to keep motivated! And then, there is the crew at YeahWrite. It seems that when I am courageous (and focused) enough to participate in their challenges, there are people who read what I write! I even won a cool badge there once! I love this site, and I love reading what the authors there write. What awesome role models! I hope to do more of this in 2015.

So what was 2014 about, for me?

Here are some words which have characterized 2014 for me at different times:

Travel

Writing

Ebuillience

Neophyte

Tangible

Yearning

Flabbergasted

Obduration

Undaunted

Rejuvenation

Tenacity

Edification

Expatiation

Nostalgia

 

2014 – L’année où nous sommes allés en France — The year we went to France. A lot of “firsts” wrapped up in that statement. The first time I’ve taken a whole month off work, the first time I’ve been to France, the first time I walked fearlessly (ok, almost fearlessly) into a non-English speaking country, the first time I rode on a train, the first time I went to Switzerland, the first time I met several of my correspondents, the first time I saw Roman ruins, the first time I ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant…so many firsts, I could go on forever.

2014 – The year I started a blog —  That’s another first. Don’t know why I decided to do this, but almost a year later and I still like doing this! I have found so many interesting and kind people who blog. I never imagined that anyone would ever want to read anything I write, but I am so pleased that there are a few who do!

There are a lot of things that happened in 2014, some positive, some not, but overall, it was a good year. God has blessed me immensely.

Un grand merci à vous, mes chers lecteurs! Meilleurs vœux pour le Nouvel An !