I have always had a funny relationship with the things that I've put out on the internet. I've been blogging and podcasting and all sorts for over half my life at this point—I started my first blog when I was thirteen, I think?—but very little of it is readily available. I'm sure some of it's on the Wayback machine or what-have-you, but without a lot of effortful rooting-around, it's all gone. I will be putting stuff out very happily for a few years and then at some point I'll decide that I want to get rid of it all and start again, and I'll delete the site (or sometimes just the posts).
I don't know exactly what it is that makes me want to do this. Sometimes it's because I feel I've changed significantly and do not feel those older words are really mine any longer. But just as often it's not. I keep thinking maybe I will get over this at some point, maybe I will find myself rid of the urge to purge, to sweep it all away and start again. But not today.
(No doubt I'll be republishing some of the stuff I've written over the last few years before too long, but for now, we're starting again.)
