I survived the A to Z challenge- My reflections

So last week, a week from today ( Thursday, April 30) was the last day of the blogging challenge and you could almost hear the large sigh from hundreds and hundreds of bloggers all around the world .
I was reading a blog back in late February ( I don't remember which one) and they had mentioned gearing up for the A to Z blogging challenge. That was the first I had heard or more likely paid attention about the challenge. I was having a very positive can conquer the world kind of day or something because I thought to myself- " I can do this" and I signed up.  I seriously had no idea the enormity of it all.
It seemed simple enough, you blog everyday but Sunday's and the posts had to have something to do with the letter of alphabet for the day.  I've never once used the Blogger scheduling thingamajig which apparently you can write post and it automagically posts for you on the day you schedule it. Who and where is this magical wand you yield?  I wrote most posts by the seat of my pants meaning during breakfast from my iphone.  The posts that had videos had to be written by my home laptop because my work laptop blocks me from blogger (rude - lol).  I wrote a few posts the night before . I had no rhyme or reason and was not the most prepared. I work better that way sometimes. Feet to the fire syndrome.
 It is also encouraged to have a theme for your challenge. I can see the benefits of a theme NOW that I've seen dozens but I had no idea what that meant either. So I didn't have a theme.  I am glad I didn't have one for my first time for this because I enjoyed my freedom of posting any random thing that came to mind for that letter.  Now these themes I mentioned, there were some awesome ideas out there and the creativity of these bloggers was like no other.  I saw themes about movies, movie stars, the movie Its a Wonderful Life, Dr Seuss, life lessons, Harry Potter, Horses, States, Countries, SCi-FI, music, you name it someone wrote a whole challenge on it. 
Here were a few of my favorite themes:
Dr. Seuss- Writing in Wonderland
Good Character Qualities- I Made it through the day
Life Lessons- Smidgens, Snippets and Bits
Musicians- Cherdo on the Flipside
Elements of Dreams - A Faraway View


So so many!!  There were "rules" in that you were asked to visit at least 5 blogs off the list a day.  I did that and sometimes many more than that. I don't know if everyone truly did that. The amount of attendees was daunting but I just grabbed from whichever title spoke to me.  I know I did my share and didn't feel bad that I didn't see everyone. I also had to keep up with my comments and also reading the new blogs I found that I chose to follow. 
It was also encouraged to keep the posts short. I obviously missed that memo on most of my posts. In fact, my letter T on transplant was my longest post ever in my history.  It felt good to write it out though. I make no apologies for that.
The Saturdays were the toughest. I usually got up early and knocked it out to get it over with.


Honestly, I am so glad I did this. I like surprising myself and pushing myself to do things that I can be lazy on. I even had to travel out of town on business and totally could have NOT posted but I did.
I made new followers and found dozens of blogs that I'm now following. I feel like I also made a few new blogging "friends".  There was a wonderful sense of community with this challenge and it was nice to have a comment just to say "stopping by".  Most everyone was so friendly and encouraging and it just motivate me even more.. 
Would I do this again? Um HECK yea!! Just not until next year.  Maybe I will have a theme and will write smaller posts.  Maybe.