Reflections on the A to Z Challenge

I survived! Not only did I survive, but I thrived. 

Yes, I felt exhausted. It was overwhelming at times. I felt as if the month was experiencing a rip in the time-space continuum, alternately flying by and dragging its way along.

You know what, though? When all was said and done, I really enjoyed myself. I set about the whole thing in the smartest way I knew how, accounting for my time limits and tendency to procrastinate: I wrote and scheduled all twenty-six of my posts ahead of time. In fact, I was almost in a panic because I didn't finish getting them all ready until mid-March.

It turns out I was wise to prepare in that way, because visiting blogs, commenting, and answering comments on my own blog took a LOT more time than I thought it would. I had tried to pre-screen a few dozen blogs prior to the challenge so I could bookmark the ones I wanted to visit, but I soon found out that staying caught up was easier said than done. Still, I tried my best and felt I succeeded on many levels.

I managed to visit the bloggers I was already following, and found at least two dozen more that I liked enough to add. I never made it back to the master list of participants, because I mostly tried to keep up with those visiting me, those I followed, and maybe a few new people here and there if I thought their comments elsewhere were interesting.

I didn't really have goals set; I just wanted to get to know some new people and maybe find some new readers. On that front, the results exceeded any expectations I could have had. My number of blog followers more than doubled (which wasn't difficult, considering the number I started with), and with that, the number of comments increased.

And oh, the comments! I have to hand it to my blog visitors. Not only did they provide some terrific comments, they did something that made me smile: they talked to each other. It was like throwing a party with a variety of friend groups and having them successfully mingle. I really loved the fact that they felt comfortable replying to anyone's comments as well as leaving their own. There were a few days where I just sat back and laughed, and wondered if I had anything to even add by replying. And I'm not going to lie, the comments on my "X" day were my favorite, though I will never look at poor Captain America in the same way.

THANK YOU to all those who took the time to visit, comment, and follow, and to those who worked so hard to organize the whole thing!