Reflections

Wow, May 7th and it seems as though the April challenge was forever ago!  Well, I'd originally intended to write this post over the weekend but birthday-palooza got the best of me and it didn't happen.  Luckily the linky list only went up today so I'm not late or anything.  On with the post.

First of all, I have to admit that the title of this post has the Diana Ross & The Supremes song stuck in my head.  You know what I'm talking about right?  I can't be the only one.  But I digress.  I signed up for the challenge all excited and full of eagerness.  Then it kind of fell to the wayside.  The closer it got, the more nervous I got.  What had I agreed to?  Themes?  Scheduling?  26 posts?  But, I went with it.  I couldn't think of a theme so I went with just randomness with the stipulation that each post would include a photo.  So I guess in a way my lack of a theme became a theme?  Deep huh?  I decided to start writing and schedule posts ahead of time, taking the advice from wizened pros.  This was totally the right choice.  Once I was about a week ahead I could post every other day or so and not miss a day!  This really did give me time to visit as many blogs as I could.  Ok, so that's the pre-story, on with the reflections.

In short I loved it.  It was a lot of fun and not only did I thoroughly enjoy blogging, but also reading and discovering all of the different blogs out there.  Who knew there were so many interesting and varied people out there with their own little (or in some cases big) corner of the Internet?  People blog about everything!  Their daily lives, books (a lot of those), animals, religion, cars, movies, history, video games, writing, and the list goes on.  I am still amazed.  There are so many interesting people out there. May favorite part of the challenge?  I'm torn between writing and reading.  My biggest regret from the challenge?  That I did not get to visit as many blogs as I'd hoped.  Luckily, the list remains up so I can continue to work through it.  What did the challenge teach me?  That there are amazing people all over the world doing amazing things.  I'm by far not the most interesting person blogging, but I love it and it makes me happy.  I'm proud to be a part of such an amazing community and contribute to it in some small way.  In short, it was an awesome experience and I will definitely be back next year.

So, were you a follower of Drosche Land prior to the challenge?  Did you find me via the challenge?  Regardless of how you came here, I'm glad you did and hope you enjoyed April with me!  Below I've compiled some of the stats and numbers from the challenge.  Pretty cool!

Blogging A to Z Challenge In Numbers

1,718: Participants (as of the end of the challenge)

1,401: Visits to Drosche Land in April

150ish: Blogs I visited (far too few!) and comments I left (one for every blog!)

54: Comments received

26: Challenge posts

15: New followers

10: New blogs I now follow

1: New Facebook friend

All is well, A to Z Challenge survivor (and loving it), in Drosche Land.