Day 28: A Toast

Readers, fellow bloggers, friends, family, quiet followers, jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers -

Thank you for joining me here in this cyber space, on the last day of February, and the final day of the Expat Blog Challenge.

When we began, this blog was in danger of falling into disrepair and neglect. This space has always been an outlet, a place where I played around with words, shared images, and perhaps provided a bit of entertainment or information. But, as my baby (my actual baby, that is) started to become a crawler and a toddler, my days were naturally spent more chasing her and less in following any of my own creative pursuits. I adore my days with her, but I was slowly losing just a tiny bit of me. I hoped to give myself some work and push myself to write a lot and to write as well as I know how. Maybe, on some days, even better. Most days, I think I've done that, and I'm uplifted having made that space for me.

I'm no stranger to wild hares. I've NaBloPoMo-ed, I've Day Zeroed, I've read 100 Aussie Plays in 100 Days. Tomorrow, I start a 31 day Yoga/Pilates challenge because I just can't get enough of doing stuff for a lot of days. The Expat Blog Challenge was not the hardest or the longest one I've done, but it is definitely the most fun.

I am happy that I set the wheels in motion on the idea, recruiting and coming up with prompts, but the rewards of this challenge I owe entirely to my fellow challengers. They have been enthusiastic, dedicated, and most of all, encouraging. They've trotted around from one blog to another every day, leaving nice notes, and they have engaged in conversation on the group's page. As an incentive to build community, I set up a contest for a small (tiny) prize that each blogger could enter any time they left a comment on another blogger's post. I thought people would pop around now and again, but in fact, we had to limit the entries to one per day because so many people were leaving half a dozen or more comments per day - just because they wanted to, not for some silly prize. I had no idea that such a strong sense of community would come out of this challenge. I have gotten to know my fellow bloggers' stories, their passions, their fears, their hidden gems, and the places they work. I've met kindred spirits and gotten to know friends I've known for years on a much deeper level. I have learned about life in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Spain, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and I've learned a lot more about life beyond my own in Australia. I am heartened, and humbled, and encouraged to follow more wild hares to see what fascinating and wonderful places and people they might lead me to.

It's been a pleasure, friends. Thank you for writing, thank you for reading, thank you for making this February a month I will not forget.

Done and dusted!