My Happiness Jar
The 12-year-old Blog post that still gets a handful of views
Once Upon A Blogger
In 2010 I created my Blog: Quiddity Quandary. With the idea of it being the curious search for the essential nature of myself. Which in 2010 at the age of 22 was a very appropriate idea. I managed to publish six whole posts! Most of my posts got about 30 or so views. However one post got a bit more. And because of a brightly colored photo continues to get a handful of views as recently as Dec 31, 2022. Over 11 years after the post was published.
I attribute these views to Pinterest primarily, which some people still use I suppose. As I mentioned in my last post here, in 2021 I began thinking about starting a blog again and when I checked into my old Blogspot, I noticed the consistent if small traction that post continues to get.
My Happiness Jar
When I was in therapy (one of several times) my therapist gave me some glass markers and a large mason jar. She told me to make a happiness jar. A jar which I would fill with thoughts and sayings which I could pull out and read when I was feeling depressed and unhappy.
I picked up a little jar filled with multi-colored stars at a garage sale and some time or other I put the stars into the happiness jar. Then later on, my brother and his girlfriend sent me a little box filled with the same kind of multicolored stars, which I added to the happiness jar.
When stumbling around on etsy, I discovered that this type of star was called a lucky star and was made by folding strips of paper over and over and shaping it into a star. What a cool thing! Origami stars! So I decided to learn how to make my own lucky stars and work on filling my Happiness Jar FULL of little lucky stars.
That’s it, that was the whole post. Here are some images of the blog and post as well:
Honestly the whole thing sums up me in my early 20s. Overzealous and weird and still absolutely failing to follow-through on ambitious projects. I am almost certain, that although I still have the jar, it contains exactly the same number of lucky stars that is has in these photos. Although I am a LOT happier now than I was then, so I guess the “happy luck” is doing its thing.
Behind The Scenes: Metrics and Data
Here are some images from my Blogger dashboard that show the metrics for this post as well as the metric for every post I wrote in 2010-2011.
So yep that was the story of my last blog attempt. So it’s safe to say I am making my goal to publish at least 7 posts here on Substack, and post for more than 7 months. Seems unlikely but well at least I have the second post done.
An Even Older Blog I Wrote
On my Blogger dashboard it also links to my older Blogspot blog “I give you my starlight” which was my blogging attempt that spanned June 2007 to October 2008 and had 29 published posts. I haven’t dug into that one at all so I’m not going to go into it right now. Maybe another day.
However, I have linked it in those quotes so feel free to go see how cringe and ridiculous 19-20 year-old Julia was. Actually that’s not fair, I have no recollection of what those posts contain and I am making an assumption that my perspective then was one me now would consider “cringe and ridiculous” but in reality It might not be that bad. Let me know what you think if you decide to jump in that time machine!
Thanks and Coming Up
Since we’re on the subject of blogs and metrics on this post, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to read my first post! Especially thanks to mom who was the first person to subscribe to my Substack and the only one who voted on the poll. Aren’t mom’s the best? However I have had 24 views in 5 days so we’re off to an okay start. Only 8 or so of those were me probably. Substack has a lovely dashboard that shows metrics in a lovely little box for your posts.
Oh and for those of you who want to follow along but don’t want to open emails to do so I HIGHLY recommend the Substack Reader App which is available on both Android and iOS and creates a chronological feed of all of your Substack subscription content in one accessible place. It also includes a chat feature where you can interact with the authors you support even more directly than in post comments.
Next post I’m going to write might be a bit more personal and deep. February is a historically Heavy month for me and I am kind of wanting to write on the cyclical nature of my moods as someone with Bipolar Disorder type 2 along with ADHD and Complex PTSD. Because this isn’t actually a blog about blogging after all. At least not entirely. Hope you’re having a great week!
Love,
Jules