I have to tell you, there's a tremendous amount of pressure on me right now. I've posted on every single February 29th we've had since 2008. That's an eight year commitment to writing down some words on a particular day and I've met that commitment a full three times.
It's true that my previous Leap Day posts have not demonstrated any sort of literary talent or journalistic integrity on my part. Both posts, as I examine them now, appear to have been rushed to publication in order to meet my obligation. I'd like to apologize now for their poor quality.
With that in mind, let's take a look back to see where I went wrong...
Friday, February 29, 2008
I posted a link to an article in The Washington Post about leap day. I went on to note that due to a quirk in the way my blog was set up, it looked like I'd published on February 28th.
Nothing about this piece excites me. I'm quite frankly bored by what it has to offer. There's no joy. No verbal swag. It's cement poured into a square on the calendar I figured needed to be filled in. I didn't even bother to put a footprint down to make it my own.
Don't get me wrong. I applaud this post's yeoman-like effort to stand stoutly and unwavering in place for eight years without complaint in order to memorialize one of the latest days in February ever recorded. It's not its fault that I crafted it poorly and without thought to how it would be viewed all these years later. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to its content. I suspect that if I remember to look back on it again in 2020, it may actually have crumbled into dust.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
I recounted a conversation I had with a friend and told the tale of how it jogged my memory to write something on KC in HD. Then I noted that $5 footlongs from Subway would no longer be a thing in 2016.
This piece holds up significantly better than my previous attempt. I managed to work in a brief narrative and introduced another character into the equation. It's not easy to juggle so many personalities in a work this succinct, but I did it admirably.
Perhaps most impressively, I correctly predicted the fall of the Five Dollar Footlong. Earlier this month, the sudden collapse of this great American icon prompted headlines across the country. It's difficult not to look back at my post today without thinking of the author as a wise seer boldly proclaiming what's in store for a lesser noble, that, yes, people have heard of, but are also embarrassed to say they know.
And yet, while brevity is the soul of wit, I must admit that I let myself down in 2012. Again my post failed to prompt any sort of discussion. No one took note of it and I can't say that I blame them. Racism and sexism are still alive and well in America today and my writing did nothing to quell their incessant, raging fires.
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Should someone have stepped in to offer assistance? Yes, probably. My friends never stepped up to share the burden and important figures like Bill Gates, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Donald Trump didn't pick up the phone to set me on the right path. But in the end, I must shoulder all of the blame. I should have been better. You deserve better.
But not this year because I've already written this.
