Celebrating one year of ‘Billie with an I.E.’

"'Billie with an I.E.' was created on May 18, 2010, exactly one year ago today."

I’m proud to announce that today marks the one year anniversary of the creation of my multimedia blog, ‘Billie with an I.E!’

This blog is a product of my multimedia internship with The Baltimore Sun last summer. The first assignment to all interns like myself was to create a blog and maintain it throughout our time there.

Once I started, I couldn’t stop, and when my internship ended I was certain that I’d use the blog to build on what I had done at The Sun. I have no shame in admitting that this blog has become somewhat of an addiction. It’s become a part of me, and I treat it as work rather than a hobby. 

I originally intended to use ‘Billie with an I.E.’ as a means of reflecting upon my own work so that it improves every day, and I can say that that objective has remained well intact. The photographs, videos, slideshows, podcasts, and articles that I produce have improved substantially because of this blog. Writing about the work that I post has served as an enjoyable form of self-criticism for me. Posting regularly has become a device for displaying the successes in my day-to-day work, as well as for pointing out the improvements that could be made. 

I also love the sense of permanence that blogs carry. They provide the precious ability to instantly find work from long ago and see it with fresh eyes. It’s only been one year, so I still vividly remember most of the work I’ve posted, but I’m seduced by the prospect of looking back on those works five, fifteen, maybe fifty years from now and reading about how I viewed the world this year. 

Finally, as I graduate college and begin to enter the job market, it’s been a valuable tool in marketing myself and my work, and I truly believe the skills maintaining this blog has given me puts me at an advantage over other similar candidates.

This year, I published 120 posts, and by the end of today, ‘Billie with an I.E.’ will have reached 10,000 page views overall!

Thank you to both my regular readers as well as the occasional passers-by. I hope that a photograph here has brightened your day, or that a video taught you something you didn’t know, or that a post has sparked conversation.

If that’s happened at least once, I’m happy. 

Here’s to another year!