I started this blog on September 5, 2007. That was 2,608 day ago. That’s a lot of days. I’ve written over 500 posts, over 500 single-spaced pages in a Word document, over 275,000 words. That’s a lot of words. Last week, someone clicked on this blog and read something, I don’t know what, but it was the one millionth page view. That’s a lot of page views.
That number isn’t earning me a fancy living and it’s not going on my CV, but I like that I’ve had the opportunity to interact with so many people through this blog. Sometimes by email, sometimes in the comments section, and sometimes meeting up in flesh and blood. I’ve made plenty of friends through this blog. Some have moved to Sweden only to leave a few years later. Some have stayed. And some, like me, have just gone back and forth.
It took me a while to get going with this blog. To find my voice and to find my style. My first few posts are rough and I once wrote about Bill Murray getting pulled over while driving a golf cart in Stockholm. So there’s that. But I also got to write about a country that I love and admire. And sometimes that country annoyed me a bit.
I wrote plenty about the things that bothered me about this country. And that bothered a lot of people that live in this country. I criticized and I joked and I had fun. There are posts that make me cringe and comments that make me laugh. There are emails that make me wonder about the goodness of people (it’s surprising how many ways people can use the word fuck) and then there are emails that remind me of the goodness of people. I learned a lot along the way and have changed a lot as well. Something that becomes (sometimes) painfully obvious when I read back on what I've written. I've even seen a popular TV show emerge titled Welcome to Sweden. Clearly, it was inspired by the popularity of this blog. There can be no other explanation.
I don’t post as often as I used to or even as often as I’d like to, but I’m glad so many people have stuck around and popped in to say hello over the past seven years. Thanks for reading and commenting and making this a fun experience.
Welcome to Sweden. And thanks for putting up with me for so long.
Thank YOU for writing this blog. I discovered this site quite recently so I guess I have a lot of reading to catch up on. I think we (Swedes) need someone to put or lives and culture at perspective to learn about ourselves (and laugh a bit at our silly habits). Your observations remind me a lot about what Swedish ethnologists (cousins to anthropologists) have observed and written about Swedish culture. So yeah, be proud of your accomplishments! :)
ReplyDeleteI have to confess that I'm actually a folklorist and have a lot of colleagues here in Sweden that are ethnologists.
DeleteCongrats on 7 years and 1 million page views! Your blog is insightful and hilarious -- so fun to read. Thanks for the laughs and for sharing your amusing/interesting/occasionally bizarre anecdotes. Keep up the great work!
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ReplyDeleteTack själv, Hairy. I love your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks och tack, everyone!
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