Remember LiveJournal? Are you old enough to remember LiveJournal? Don't tell me if you aren't. Maybe just stop reading here. This is for those who remember.

Remember when you had a sub-twenty follower count that was, basically, just your circle of friends? Remember when that was actually fine because everyone was so active in each other's comment sections? Remember when their responses were long and thoughtful? Remember how it felt like trading letters? Remember how communal it felt?

Remember posting just for the hell of it? Remember being bored after class or at some idle hour after a long day at your dead-end, low-wage, just-out-of-school job and opting to take half an hour to bang out a few paragraphs? Remember how you didn't care if they were perfect? Remember how you spent time making them better, sure, but it's not like you were tackling the great American novel, you know what I mean?

Remember when you weren't thinking so much about your audience? Remember, at the very least, when the only audience you were thinking about was one you knew was likely to give you grace?

Remember, in short, when the practice of writing wasn't such a rigid thing in your mind? Remember when it could be whatever you wanted? Remember when it didn't have to have a theme or a structure or even a goddamn focus but could instead just be? Remember when all you cared about was whether it felt good and sounded good to your ear?

Remember that?

Do you?

What happened to that?