August of last year

Someday we'll meet beyond the stars 
And it'll be away from here   
Someday we'll meet beyond the time and the bars  
And it'll be away from here
—Rilo Kiley | August
The email account attached to this blog has 526 unread emails and Blogger says I have 62 unpublished drafts. I've done as much stalling as I could but I think 3 years is a long time to be in one place.

Life is confusing. I thought that at 15 and I think that now. I have hated life and then loved it again, sometimes in the same sentence. I have wanted to escape and then wanted to stay. I may have not been eloquent or poetic or prolific here but I sure as hell have been confused.

But it was a good run. I couldn't have found a better place to record the final years of my teenagedom than the blogosphere. The kindness, the humility, the strength, the friendships that I've experienced my few years as a blogger have astounded me. A simple hello left one day in the comments has started friendships despite geography. It's been 3 years and there are still those who take the time to leave a Facebook comment or send an email simply because they want to know how I'm doing.

Those bloggers have read about my life in some way or another for almost 4 years. From inelegant and weird at 15 to cynical and cryptic at 17. As I Wrote One Day was always about me trying to hear in an environment that did its best to overpower and overwhelm. In the past 3 years, I have done things I'm proud of, things I regret, I've made decisions that broke me, threw away relationships I cherished and started ones I hated.

I've loved harder and lost more.

But it was a good run.

I've fought for my life. And I've learned how to live it.

I'm sure we'll meet again sometime.