Milestone

One year!

Actually - one year and one day, sort of.   The date on this blog's first post, "Jellybeans", was officially January 31st, 2012.   Ha!  I missed it.   But just like one of the most important lessons I learned during the first year of Ryan's Pitch - nothing is perfect; nor should it be!   SO.......

Happy Birthday!

Blogging has been everything I had hoped it would be - and more.

• I was told it can be an outlet.   It certainly was.
• I was told it would connect me with other collectors.   It did.
• I was told it would be gratifying.   It has been.
• I was told that it would be difficult and that I would lose motivation to continue.   Damn straight.
• I was told it would help me explore our hobby.  It has.
• I was told to not take it too seriously and to make sure it was fun.   SO true.
• I was told it would be fun.   Bingo!

There were a couple of times over the past year when I wasn't sure if I would ever write another post.   It was never for lack of ideas, that's for sure....and I suppose that's the most important thing.   So many ideas and [random] thoughts - so little time.   Here's to hoping there's more time for all of it, for all of us, in year #2.

I ended up enjoying a much more robust "collecting interaction" experience on Twitter than I thought I would a year ago.   I thought that the @RyansPitch presence on twitter would serve purely as a way to spread the word about the blog and find more collectors.   It did both of those things but it also provided an alternate and more succinct method for sharing collecting thoughts, pictures, hobby-related stories and executing trades.   The posts/stories were, of course, limited to 140 characters at a time.....but that can often be a blessing in disguise for a long-winded gabber like me.   I would encourage anybody to check it out and join the fun if you haven't already.  Look me up.

Thanks to everybody who spent just one of your precious moments to read any part of Ryan's Pitch.   I hope it gave you something in return, even if it was just an urge to never read it again!   Which would mean you aren't reading this......errr.   Thank you to everybody who spent the time to comment on a post or email with thoughts and trade proposals - interaction with fellow collectors is a true joy for me and something I just don't have an outlet for or access to outside of THIS blogging and online community.   The support has been amazing and was particularly overwhelming in the beginning.   I am sure that some of my tremendous trading partners were lost in the shuffle when I realized I didn't have the time for complete reviews of every trade - if I missed you, please accept my apologies!   

In virtual essence - thanks for letting me hang out with you guys and gals.   I hope you continue to enjoy Ryan's Pitch in Year 2.

Thanks for Reading!

Ryan