I didn’t want to do the “Welcome back to WordPress” post. Why? Well, I wanted to be too cool for it. I wanted to show up, irreverent and removed, using all lower-cased letters because I saw the cool kids on BearBlog⁽¹⁾ do it. But as I re-familiarized myself with the WordPress community, I was taken aback. I forgot how warm, how earnest, how real it can be over here. In the face of genuine authenticity, my schtick felt… well… like a schtick. Silly and try-hard and not even in a fun way.

So, I’m cutting the shit.

I started my first blog in 2007. Called Confessions of a Skinny Black Girl, it was my quarterlife crisis in real time. Over the years, as social media grew, Skinny Black Girl brought so much to my life. Friends all over the country, a platform to share my ideas with some of my literary heroes. I abandoned the moniker in my late 30s and have spent the last five years name-changing and platform-hopping, seeking the hopeful, aspirational internet of old and finding nothing but would-be influencers begging to be seen and anxiety-ridden consumers begging to be told what to do.

No wonder logging into my abandoned WordPress account felt like a breath of fresh air. It’s the last adult, human space on the Internet. And after five years in the wilderness, I know for sure. This is where I want to be, OG blog name and all.

(1) They are not cool. They are miserable.