Happy (Belated) Two Years!

I was going through the blog's statistics and was surprised to find the number of visits has just about tripled in recent months. I was pee-my-pants excited!

When I started this blog I really wasn't sure who would even want to read a blog about a girl with a beard who shaves and complains, and complains and shaves, still lives at home and doesn't know why she's hirsute. I was hoping other girls who were just developing facial hair and searching for the Why and What-to-do might find me typing away here and take something useful away from my experiences. And back then, I certainly didn't expect to be going through so many diagnostic tests!

About a month after I started the blog, I was already asking myself if it was going to benefit anyone. Would people who are having different cosmetic troubles find it helpful? Or people who enjoy a chuckle about the imperfections of our bodies in general? Would people like that find it at all?

To my surprise, it was the women who'd already been through what I was going through who came and read and commented. I hadn't anticipated that. I'm sure they weren't the only ones who visited, but they were the ones who usually said a word or two, so they were the ones I was aware of. A simple "I know how you feel" was so encouraging. I might not be helping those new to hirsutism, or educating those who found it flatly repulsive, but I felt honored to be talking about what so many others were experiencing.

And discovered I was also helping myself. Talking about living with hirsutism helps me to come to terms with it. Now, though I've certainly got my mental blocks, I feel much better about it than I ever did before.

I'm grateful to anyone who has ever offered feedback, and to visitors who don't feel comfortable leaving a comment but constitute just one more encouraging number on the charts that assure me people are reading my blather. I feel privileged to have come into contact with people who have struggles similar to mine, and even more challenges besides. A big thank you to everyone.

In retrospect, that sounds almost like a take-leave, when it's not. I'm just having one of those Taking Stock moments. I'm looking forward to many, many blog entries to come!