K

I told myself I wasn’t going to post about this, because frankly I have mixed emotions, but here I am anyway. Last Sunday night while I slept contently in my bed, no doubt dreaming about my next plot twist for my current WIP, Youngman made a choice of significant importance to me. You see, he chose to become my 1000^th follower.

Nine hundred ninety-nine bloggers preceded him, but he turned out to be the lucky one.  There were no swirling colored lights, deafening sirens, or burst of confetti that accompanied that click of his mouse, but there should have been. Around the blogosphere reaching a thousand followers is a big deal, and as much as I preach that the number of comments left on each post is a better measure of how much impact you have around here, I selfishly still yearned for that magic number.  Not to take anything away from Youngman, but the 1000^th is just as important as the 1^st (who was probably my wife…or mother) or any of those in between.

In the official system of measurement a thousand is one kilo-, officially abbreviated as K. Technically oriented people occasionally represent large numbers by replacing the last three zeros of the general numeral with "k", for instance, 30k for 30,000. So basically, one K = 1000 eaches. In blogspeak, each individual follower is a piece of the whole, and for me, part of the K.  This is oddly appropriate because I see this as a perfect illustration of where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The symbiotic relationship a blogger has with his/her followers can…and should… transcend normal bonds.

Last week I had 551 new visitors drop by my blog (a personal record), mostly because of WRiTE CLUB, and that number boggles my mind. But what I constantly have to remind myself is getting somebody to drop by once is easy, getting them to come back that second, third, fourth time is the trick. That’s why I tend to focus on comments as a measuring stick for success, but even that is flawed because plenty of followers stop by to read, but don’t comment (which is fine). Regardless, I will continue to find ways to keep things fresh and interesting around here because that’s my role right now. Someday, when I become published, I hope to become more of a mentor. I’ve yet to earn that right, but watching me get there is part my story. 

Cruising Altitude 2.0 is as much about you as it is me. Together we have come a long way. Climbed a steep mountain without even realizing that’s what we were doing. I realize that many of those that make up the K are long gone, but that doesn’t matter. I am thankful to those you who are here in the trenches with me now.

Thank you * K + 13 (as of today).

:) DL