When I started iwilldare.com Bill Clinton was president. Of all the things that used to be in 2000, when I started this website, that’s the one that makes it feel the most aged.

When I started iwilldare.com there were no such things as comments. Like you couldn’t do that, if you wanted to comment on something someone wrote you had to send them an email, or link to their post and write whatever blah blah you wanted on your own website.

When I started iwilldare.com I was a 28-year-old customer service rep at Jasc Software who thought she was very fancy because she had a grown up office job that taught her how to make an animated gif. I drove a 1979 Chrysler Newport, had my very own apartment with no roommates, and I moonlighted at my parents’ bowling alley.

When I started iwilldare.com there was no Gawker or Dooce or Buzzfeed. There was Kottke and Metafilter, though. There there was no such thing as book blogs or mommy blogs or food blogs. There was just blogs and most people had no idea what in the hell they were. People often scoffed and said things like, “why would anyone read about your life?” or “I don’t care what you had for lunch.” These people said the same things about Twitter and Facebook. I still have no idea why anyone would read about my life, and it doesn’t really matter, because I write for myself, because I want to. I’m constantly amazed when anyone reads iwilldare.com. Why would ya? The life of a fat, forty-three-year-old spinster hermit is far from exciting. Yet people show up every damn day.

When I started iwilldare.com Jaycie was two, Max was one, and The Tibbles had yet to exist. I had two cats, Madison and Paco. Now I have one.

When I started iwilldare.com I’d never seen Paul Westerberg or The Replacements.

When I started iwilldare.com I had no idea that I’d be doing it for fifteen years, because who thinks of things like that? Not me. For a long time I felt bad about myself for “just being a blogger.” I thought I should do more with my words. What? I wasn’t exactly sure. But damnit, I’m fucking proud of iwilldare.com. It’s an accomplishment and I’m really proud of it.

Anniversaries Past

31Jul00: Eureka!
31Jul01: happy anniversary!
31Jul02: add it up
31Jul03: still bleeding
31Jul04: happy blogiversary to me
31Jul05: Sometimes you cannot deny the existence of five
31Jul06: alert the media! iwilldare.com is 6 years old today
31Jul07: Today is the 7th Anniversary of iwilldare.com
31Jul08: Eight years of I Will Dare
31Jul09: Nine years of I Will Dare, That’s a hell of a lot of bullshit
31Jul10: Ten years of I Will Dare: Ten of my best posts
31Jul11: The 11th Anniversary of I Will Dare
31Jul12: I Will Dare Turns 12 years old Today
31Jul13: Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon: On the 13th Anniversary of I Will Dare
31Jul14: Today is I Will Dare’s 14th Anniversary!