June is only two days old. Yet this month already includes two milestones for this blog.
Yesterday, this blog’s total number of views reached 6 million. That may not seem like a lot, at least in comparison with some other blogs. But recently, days of five-figure viewer counts have become routine; a few days have included more than 100,000 visits. When I first started this blog, I felt fortunate to have a double-digit daily viewership.
That was 16 years ago today. What, aside from the numbers, has changed? Well, this blog began as a sort of spinoff from “Transwoman Times” as I was returning to cycling after my gender reassignment surgery. I wasn’t quite sure of what recounting my experience as a transgender cyclist would or could mean. But I felt my gender affirmation was a turning or “middle” point on my life and, for the first time, I realized that if I didn’t know, exactly, when my life would end, I am still in the middle of it,That is one reason why I chose to call this “Midlife Cycling” rather than something like “Trans-portation” or “Tne New Girl on a Bike.”
( No, I won’t rename this “The Six Million Viewer Blog” because it sounds too much like “The Six Million Dollar Man.”)
Turns out, that title has given me flexibility: I do not have to write exclusively about cycling, bicycles, gender, age or anything else. I realize now that what I’ve always wanted is a writing forum that allows me the freedom to go wherever my thoughts, dreams, memories—and wheels—take me. But I also wanted something that would seem, or at least feel, more meaningful, if only to me, than the diaries and journals I’ve kept at various times in my life.
Now you know why I have not monetized this blog. After sixteen years and six million views, I want it, and my other journeys (on or off my bike) —and I—to continue wherever and however we want and must.
