April 3rd - What a difference a year can make

The thing about blogging daily is that if you're good at it, you can look back and know exactly what you were doing on a certain day. Normally dates wouldn't be memorable to me, but now there are multiple dates that hold significance to me. I can now know on which day I first tried something, met someone, bought something, and so on. It's really remarkable to me.

If you've been following this blog for at least a year now, you know about April 2010. There was a lot of drama in my life, and it caused me to change the way I think about a lot of things. It's strange now to think that what happened last year was so emotionally hard on me, and today it barely affects me emotionally.

The things you put on the internet - on a blog, Twitter, Tumblr, anything - are out there for everyone to see. Employers, teachers, friends, and strangers. Never underestimate who looks at the things you post. While it may feel good to let out your secrets, talk poorly of a fellow employee, or rant about your political views, it is extremely important to remember that if what you are posting is public, people can and will find it - and these people may or may not be people you want to read your posts.

Thought today I no longer feeling a gripping sense of loss whenever I think about my entry from April 3rd, 2010, I still keep in mind the lessons of the previous paragraph. It no longer causes me emotional distress to think about the relationship I ruined, but I will always remember what I learned from the experience. The internet, though a vast expanse of information, is sometimes smaller than you think. Its broadness means nothing when someone about whom you care discovers something you posted that is not to his or her liking.

I have learned a lot this year.