“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”
Oh, no,” said Dr Dorian. “I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”

Charlotte’s Web

This time last year I was surrounded by a clutter of Christmas decor, volunteer applications for my year of service, empty coffee cups already branding their rings upon the table, and a few of the girls in my life who have my heart pretty much memorized.

I can list to you the things I knew in that very moment: One) I did not have any clue where I wanted to go after graduation. Two) I was really very happy in the moment with these good friends of mine(though its easy now to think I took it for granted). Three) I did not want to be a blogger.

Blogger. The very word made me shiver. Sent me fleeting for the nearest pillow to shove my face into so that I could scream shrilly without alarming my roommates. I never set out to be a blogger. And when I started out, I knew for that reason, I would never be good at blogging.

The first few posts felt quite similar to an old home movie where a little girl with a head full of curls anxiously tries to jam a plastic Jelly onto her foot. It would not fit. No matter how hard she tugged and pulled, the world around the little girl knew- the perfect pink Jelly would not fit.

It was not until one of the Memorizers of my Heart felt the Harsh Words of Mean Girls did I feel prompted to use my blog, my icky sticky blog, to write something to console her. And in that moment of stitching stories & sentiments together to give to a dear friend, I became hooked on the idea of using my words to Spin Together the Feelings We All Sometimes Have. The ones for which we proclaim, “there are no words.”

For a girl who adores words more than pumpkin pie and hot apple cider, I find it very hard to articulate what this year of writing at As Simple as That has meant to me. This blog has become my very own nook of goodness on the web, a place that I have turned to time and time again in the past 365 days, only to find that you have never turned away. When I think of the web its no longer some abysmal hole of information tied together by www.’s and .com’s but rather a spiderweb of remarkable people who bare their souls to the world on a daily basis. Through a post. Through a comment. Through a thought. Through a word. Webs. Webs. Brilliant Webs.

I really must say to anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis and grows nervy over the thought of writing their own blog, do it. Absolutely, 100%, no questions asked, do it. Is that even a question? I am practically jumping up and down, using this blog as a trampoline, to push you to start lacing stories. Testing your Passions.

If I will one day tell my children that there was a moment that changed me for the good and for the better, it was the day I realized that your heart can have a place on the internet, that you don’t need a niche to make yourself grow, that you can start your own drumbeat when the world just doesn’t give you one that you can lay your hands to. That you can meet strangers over a computer screen and let them surprise you, as they become some of your greatest comforts at the end of the longest days.

It has become somewhat a cliche of my own to use but I do believe that there are people in this world who make “thank you” seem like too small of a word. You are those people to me. Thank you for reading. Thank you for giving me that first comment. Thank you for being mentors to me in the “blogosphere.”Thank you for showing me just how beauty looks with a .com attached. Thank you for writing love letters and doing so much more than that. Thank you for giving me stories to share. Thank you for always sending a text message after every post, without fail, to give me your feedback (Car- that one is for you).

But one last thank you, perhaps it could be the only one. Thank you for making it clearly undeniable that all of you, the web and the life of this site, are the miracle at hand.

Here’s to a wonderful year of what I would like to call soul-searching upon a page. Without you, I would have never found the words. Because of you, I am left without more words to say.