A few months ago I watched the ending Derry Girls on Netflix. Commenting on their growing up and the future of Northern Ireland, Erin had a monologue that went something like this:

There’s a part of me that wishes everything could just stay the same… No matter how scary it is, we have to move on and we have to grow up because things might just change for the better… And if our dreams get broken along the way, we have to make new ones from the pieces.

This post is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of this site. Despite some of my humble achievements throughout the years, I’ve certainly done things I’m not proud of. Some juvenile comments I’ve posted in the earlier versions of this site were the best examples. That’s why in 2012, the year of my graduation and the official start of my adult life, I rebooted this site and got rid of all the old posts which were potentially embarrassing at best. At first the site looked so empty, but another 11 years has passed and now we have about 100 posts in this site. Not too many, but I guess not too bad either. Some of them (1, 2) are in fact my favourite of all time.

So, the evolution of this site, which reflects my personal growth, partly fulfilled Erin’s insights. Growing up was indeed scary for me, but at the end, I ended up in a position that’s not bad. This year is that it’s going to be my second graduation (hopefully). What will this take me into? How will I, this site and everyone else evolve? That’s another question. I’m glad that things turned out OK for Erin and Northern Ireland. But what about me and our beloved city?