i have been doing some form of blogging since at least 2003. it may have been longer than that, but that’s the furthest back i can find. on december 7, 2003, i wrote this:

yea, i finally gave in and got a livejournal. i guess that means i’m cool now.

from reading some of the things i wrote back then, i was the exact opposite of cool. i was a whiny 17 year old emo kid who liked to complain about pretty much everything. hey, don’t judge me. it’s what we did back then.

for the last seven years, i’ve written my thoughts in some form or fashion on live journal, xanga, myspace, facebook, and now wordpress. if something was going on in my life, i wrote about it. i’ve written about dating a girl, having my friends pick someone other than me to play in their band, liking a new girl, losing friends, moving, my job sucking, being in college and confused about what to do next, not liking life, being lonely, growing up, breaking up with a girl, getting over that break up, finding out what god wants me to do with my life, falling in love with a girl, working in ministry, and all sorts of other things.

throughout those years i’ve used song lyrics as titles.

throughout those years i have finished posts by saying “say your prayers and take your vitamins. have a nice day.”

throughout those years i’ve entertain 12.5 people on a regular basis with the random things that i would write.

and now, on december 30, 2010, seven years and 27 days after that initial post, i’m saying that’s all about to change.

i’m not going to quit writing, but i’m going to change up the way that i do things.

when i started this blog on march 28, 2009, i called it “this isn’t high school: one kid’s story of growing up.” i’m not saying i’m completely grown up because i’m definitely not. however, with that being said, i am grown up to the point that i’m somewhat tired of writing about growing up.

my mom has told me for years that i should write a book. i’ve never admitted it before but i think that one day i really would like to. i don’t know that it’d ever get published or that anyone would even buy it, but it’s something that i’d like to try to do. i’m nowhere near good enough right now to do that though. the key to getting better though is to write consistently. in the past, i’ve just written whenever i felt the desire or wanted to blow off more steam.

now is the time when i get more intentional about it.

i’m completely revamping this isn’t high school. i’ve already changed the title from “one kid’s story of growing up” to “student ministry | growing up | being awesome.” i’m not going to abandon the growing up stuff, but i don’t want it to be the focus. in 2011, the website address for this will change from thisisnthighschool.wordpress.com to www.thisisnthighschool.com. there’s a brand new layout and header and all of that coming as well.

on monday, january 3 i’ll have a post talking about where i’m going with the site and what i mean by being more intentional with this blog.

for now though, i wanted to say thanks. if you’ve been reading the things i write for a week or if you’ve been reading it for seven years or somewhere in the middle of that time frame, thanks for taking time out of your day to read it. i know i’m not the most interesting person or the best writer, but i enjoy writing and it’s much more fun when people read.

i hope you have a great new year and really enjoy it. on monday, i hope to see you over on the new site.

and now, for the last time:

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

-jonathan