31 Days of Blogging Day 31
So here we are on October 31st…halloween…and the LAST day of this challenge! I CANNOT believe I made it all the way to day 31. I honestly thought I would give up after the first week. But not because I was lazy or didn’t want to write because I emotionally wouldn’t handle it. The first few days (heck a lot of the days) as I sat down to write these posts I cried..and I cried some more…and more. I cried almost every time I wrote. I cried when I read and typed the poems. I cried when I received all the emails and messages and comments on facebook.
I’ve done a lot of crying this month..but it was a good crying. It gave me the healing that I needed to process everything. All the facebook likes and comments gave me the confidence I needed to motivate me to actually finish this project and get the ball rolling…as I have own these domains and his website for 18 months and it sat empty for 90% of the time.
And I thank the people I met at Allume. That let me share my story with them. For the first time in MANY YEARS I was able to talk about my Dad and the project without crying, or getting super emotional and talk about the COMMUNITY it has built.
After the 20 year high school reunion that exploded the facebook page (from 10-87 likes..in 3 days…) the community was created. People were posting/scanning photos, letters, and memories. Someone offered to write a song. Another student scanned me letters and yearbook pages. It was amazing to see the things that others saw in my Dad. I was only 8 when it happenned and all I knew was my dad was a teacher at a high school. I didn’t know anything about any of his students or what he really did. A few of them had babysat us and we had been to his school and his plays but an 8 year old really can’t comprehend much more.
This project is far from done…and really it may never be officially “finished.” Over the coming months I will be working on adding more and more information to the website including memories, photos, and interviews…and as I do that I’ll be posting here (probably as quick takes on Fridays).
I was just a girl trying to process the grief from her Father’s death that happenned 18 years ago when she was too young to cope with the tragic loss. A girl that just did what she could to get by in life until she was old enough to deal with it. A girl that had no idea that her father influenced other people besides her own family. A girl that just had an idea about a website that in the end helped others and created it’s own community. Thank you for joining me this month on this wild adventure and I hope that you were able to get something out of it (even if you didn’t know my dad or my story).
Thank you to The Nester for hosting, head over to her site to read more 31 Days of Blogging challenges and go here if you are just finding my link-up and want to catch up.