Before I even begin reflecting on this year's challenge, I want to again thank Arlee Bird for coming up with such a brilliant idea. The man cannot be thanked enough! And then I want to thank the hosts, organizers, and the minions. I really like my minion, Julie Flanders, who is one cool woman.
I don't, as a rule, participate in any other blogger events that involve linking, but something made me jump into the challenge in 2011 and, once I did, I was hooked.
- Picking a Theme and then the subject for each letter of the alphabet within that theme. That's the Challenge for me. I got the best response, the most daily views and comments on my 2012 theme: Swedish Rhapsody. Learning about Sweden was interesting to many.
- This year, I chose My 50 Years in America as my theme. Mostly people I knew, my blogger friends, left comments. Their comments were so caring and thoughtful that they challenged me to look at myself and at what motivated me in years past. I'm sure, as I think on this, I will come to a better understanding of who I was and how I came to be the person I am today.
- So I got something out of the 2013 A to Z Challenge that I did not expect.
- Of course, I still met good people, wonderful poets, writers, and interesting bloggers. I know some of these bloggers will be my friends in the years to come.
Negative Feedback:
- Nothing on the A to Z Challenge.
- However, Google+ is becoming an issue for me as I refuse to provide them with any more personal information. Enough already, I don't want to share, not photos, not what I do every minute of the day, nothing. I am basically a loner who likes to take photos, write posts, read posts, and leave comments. That's all.
- This relates to the Challenge, as follows: I get wonderful comments by people I don't know, people I meet through the Challenge who use Google+ and I want to comment back. Then I find that I can't unless I provide Google+ with the date and year of my birth, click in some stupid boxes to give them more authority; or unless people accept me in their circle, whatever that is.
- I like things simple. Blogger was simple. Google has proven to be OK. I'm not interested in Google+.
That was the only negative and frustrating thing I ran into during the Challenge. And of course it has nothing to do with the Challenge, just a frustration I wanted to put out there.
Great job everyone, I really enjoyed this year so much! Thank you again everyone.
