A Year Of Blogging

This past year, I undertook a project very near and dear to my heart – this blog. It started with me on the adventure of a lifetime in Dublin, Ireland, and currently sits with me in Arizona as I wrap up my last semester of college. I know, crazy, right?

2020 has been unlike any other year in my life (as I’m sure it has for most of us), and I’m so grateful to have started and kept up blogging throughout it. As many of you reading this probably know, before starting this blog, I had been talking about making one for so many years I can’t even remember when or why I wanted to. And if I’m being honest, one of the only reasons I did was because I was able to turn that dream of mine into my senior thesis. Yes, you read that right. I used something I had to do to graduate, to do something I’d been wanting to do for a really long time. In other words, I finessed the system.

As I defend my thesis this Friday (Friday the 13th :)), I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on everything this little blog of mine has given me and everything it could give me in the future. I’ve thought a lot, too, about why it took me so long to start it, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I was simply scared. 

I was scared no one would care, and I was scared I would look like a fool doing it. Creating content of your own, content that is personal to you and requires skills you’re not sure you have for literally anyone with your web link to look at is an incredibly terrifying thing. Even scarier, though, than random people reading my content is the thought of all the people who know me reading my content. What if they think my writing is horrible? What if they cringe at the fact I made a blog? Or what if they just downright don’t care? 

But that’s the thing this project has taught me. All that extra noise literally doesn’t matter. I am by no means a “successful blogger” after a whole year of work. This blog isn’t something I can quit my day job for (oh wait, I have to get one of those first), but regardless of all that – I created something. And what’s more is that I get to keep doing it. I am so excited to have more time to devote to this blog of mine after graduation and even though I don’t know what I’ll be doing yet, I am so excited by the prospect of carrying it with me no matter what I do or where I go. My senior thesis project might be coming to an end but my blog and passion for writing and traveling are just beginning. 

I’ve made the first steps. I had the courage to start. And while I may only have a measly 14 followers and five email subscribers, I am oh so proud of that group. And what’s more is that I would so much rather keep doing this for the few people reading, than not be doing it all or not have started it at all – an even sadder thought. 

What I want people to get out of these ramblings and my first year of blogging (besides some hopefully helpful and enjoyable reads) is an example of what you can do. So go make that TikTok you think you’ll look stupid doing and go start that YouTube channel you’ve always wanted to and go share those series of paintings you’ve been working on that you don’t think are good enough or that you haven’t yet made for the same reason because guess what – it doesn’t matter if nobody pays any attention. And if the wrong people are paying attention it’s probably just because they’re just too scared to start the thing they’ve always wanted to do themselves. And if you’re one of the latter people, you should go start your thing too. 

In the day and age we live in, creating content is more possible than ever before. We have all the ability and knowledge literally at our fingertips. So if you have even the slightest desire to do so. Do so. Because you never know where you’ll end up in a year. 🙂