I used to move every three years, and not just to another dwelling but to a new country. In one of our expatriations, when it was evident that we were going to stay longer than the usual three years, we moved to a new house in the same city. I guess I like change, which is surprising considering that I’m anal-retentive, as well as a bit of a control freak (notice how I said “a bit” as I don’t want you to judge me too harshly). Change disrupts, it can be messy, and leads to loss of control, at least for a while.

Well, it’s been four years that I started Opinionista. Frankly, I wasn’t very happy that I had to have a .us URL. I wanted .com. But, some guy in Italy who writes about Italian politics has had “opinionista.com” forever, and it doesn’t seem that he will ever give it up. I am very disappointed in him.

Back then, I didn’t want to call the site The Opinionista because let’s face it; Facebook sounds much better than The Facebook. So applying the rule that the “the” should be dropped in most cases, I went without it and with .us. Having to compromise in this way was hard but made easier by my choice of one of the most original and nicest blog themes available at the time.

Today, I still like the blog’s look, but I recently started thinking that it could use a refresh. Then I thought that I should just go for an entirely new look. So, I began looking for a theme that would not only be beautiful but that would also be easy to manage, you know, drag-and-drop. Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, it was a drag learning to navigate the new theme, and I was ready to drop the whole thing a few times. But I digress (as I usually do).

The thing is that thinking about changing the look made the old .com itch come back; and so I decided to go all the way, a new look and a new home.

Yes, I’ve made a short story long to announce that “opinionista.us” will be moving to “theopinionista.com”. This will happen on Wednesday, June 1st. That’s in two days. While you’ll have to add “the” to the new URL, the Opinionista logo featured on the site remains the same. I love it too much to add “the” to it. By the way, this is all I’m going to reveal about the new site. I not only like the element of surprise, I also want to make sure that you come back in two days to check it out.

But, wait, “the” in the URL but not in the blog’s name? Yes, I admit that it does bother me but not as much as it would have four years ago. That’s the real reason that I’ve made a short story long, to tell you that creating this blog, has made me into a better writer, in my opinion (and hopefully in yours too). More importantly, it has made me into a better person. I’m less anal-retentive, I’ve had to learn to let go.

Through facing my limitations as a writer, my tech ignorance that made me lose my stats twice, my discomfort with social media (except for Twitter), and finally having to include “the” in my new URL, I’ve come to realize that I can’t control everything, and it’s alright. Because accepting all of this has opened up a bunch of opportunities, not the least connecting with you.

Now, you really should come back in two days and take a look at the new site, leave comments, rate the posts, tell all your friends.

Yeah, ok, I still have work to do on the control-freak side. Don’t leave me…