Participating in Bloganuary.

It’s been just about a week since I wrote a blog post. Normally, that wouldn’t feel weird. But after last month’s Bloganuary extravaganza, these past 6 days have been quite the respite. Did you get tired of my posts? I hope not. If you did, though, thanks for sticking it out with me.

Last February, right after I returned my from sabbatical, my team lead at work informed me that the team would be splitting up into three different focuses. Since the pandemic stole the Travel Wrangler role I was hired for a quick 2 months after I had started in that position, and my company had no plans of travel taking off again, I needed to choose a new path. That new route was Community Growth, and it sparked something within me.

Bloganuary was a community engagement initiative that I came up with on a walk with Toby, among the peacocks, on a warm, Florida afternoon in the middle of November. It was an idea that my leads really liked, as it would be a way to interact with the largest customer base of our company: bloggers.

I ran with the idea. I researched different platform and technology options that could make it work. I discovered ways to bring the community together around it. And, with the help of my colleagues, we launched it in a matter of 5 short weeks.

Bloganuary was perhaps the biggest project I’ve managed in my career. It felt good to get all the pieces working together, to see people participating in it, and to hear feedback that it was appreciated.

Answering daily prompts, as part of a monthly challenge, does not align with what I write about on this blog. I’ve dedicated my writing to focus on documenting the memories I make. I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the idea of expanding my blog to accommodate for Bloganuary. But I’m glad I did.

I not only launched an idea to help engage the community for my company, but I embedded myself into that community and became a participant, too. I wasn’t just watching the community grow from the outside; I was helping to cultivate its growth from within. That felt good.

So, with this memory made, I’ll return to my regularly scheduled programming of writing about my new memories. That is, at least until next Bloganuary.

If you’d like to read any of my posts from Bloganuary, they’re here: