Today marks a milestone I knew I was closing in on, but I've kept it extremely close to the vest to save as a surprise: my 1,000th post on this blog. I thought this was a good opportunity to run through the history of Henry's World, beginning all the way back in 2006.
My blog began life when I was in just the 2nd grade, as a way to house the short pieces of writing I was doing in school. Here's the very first post: The Haunted House. Later on that year, I began my first series, The Pug That Always Finished Second. It starred our family pug, Bucky, and his annual defeats at the racing portion of the Pugtacular event, which we attended for a few years when it was held in the Bay Area. You can find that entire journey, beginning in 2006 and finally concluding in 2012, here. Those early years of my blog can be fascinating to look through, as you get to see me grow up and find my footing as a blogger. I started and stopped tons of series ideas, would take huge breaks between posting, and generally seemed to have no idea what I was doing.
In late 2013, my struggles with mental health took over my life, and I had a renewed focus on finding something to keep me stable, which led to an increased focus on this blog. The month of March in 2015 saw a very important post with hindsight, as for the first time, I posted a wrestling review, in this case, of the recently aired WrestleMania 31. You can find that review here, though I will say that it's far from my best work, so don't judge too harshly. Also, as with any WWE review not bearing the Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews branding, it's technically non-canon, and I do have plans to re-review that show and many others someday. 2015 was the year where my blog really started to take shape, with regular WWE and South Park reviews, plus the debut of my Philly Flyers GM Mode, setting the stage for 2016, when Henry's Universe Mode took center stage, and nothing has been the same since.
That particular series had a very up and down history, mostly because I kept getting burned out on posting it, but I think it helped me grow exponentially as a writer. If you're interested in doing a lot of reading, all the tags can be found on the right hand side of this page, it's a treasure trove of my history, spanning over 5 years and hundreds of posts. I really struggled to get anything consistent going while my Universe Mode was in full swing, and with the start of 2020, it hasn't been much of a focus. January of last year provided two important posts, the first being the start of Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews, my trip down memory lane to review NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way, post found here. The second was my tribute to the late Kobe Bryant, posted the day after that tragic helicopter crash, when the emotions I felt witnessing the death of one of my childhood heroes were still extremely fresh. I poured my heart into that post, and I think it's brilliant, though obviously I'm far from unbiased. You can find that here.
Henry's World has taken on so many different forms over these past near 15 years, from a collection of short stories written by an elementary school kid all the way to pop culture reviews, and even a series that inspired me to dip a toe into the world of web design with the Henry's Universe Mode wiki. There's been a lot of ups and downs over the years, but I'm thrilled to still be here, spamming Twitter with links and plugging away at creating as much interesting content as I can. It's been a heck of a ride, and I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Here's to another thousand.
- Henry
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