I'm writing, even if you're not reading.
Pull up a chair and get comfy. Let me tell you a story.
I am writing.
Are we still reading blogs? Are they still relevant? Wait. Let me not make this about ‘we’ when I mean I.
I can trace my love of writing back to my high school years in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Particularly three pieces I wrote in my first, second, and last year at high school. One, a vulnerable exploration of the recent death of my dad, and both of the others comedic dramas written as a form of punishment when our class acted out and pissed off our form 2 and form 5 English teachers. From this you can deduce that behaviour and consequences feature frequently in my life.
After that I’d write nonsensical essays drenched in puns - puns that were capitalized so you’d know it was a pun, because that’s how performative I thought my writing had to be back then. I’d share them with classmates who received them with mixed responses, but even the high school jock put-downs that often resulted couldn’t quench my thirst to write.
I’d love to say that this set me on a path where I became a popular and commercially successful author, with a bevy of book jacket photos hung on my library wall, but this isn’t a Hallmark movie, so no, nice dream, but life had other plans for me.
Wait. This isn’t a personal history. I’m not listing a timeline of “Oh hi, I’m Bloggsy and I started blogging in 2006 and... and… and…“
So why am I here, two decades and several now-defunct blogs later, picking up the pen again?
This question has been the obstacle for the past few years that has prevented me from starting.
But here I am - putting words down. And to borrow a quote from the founder of BearBlog - this is my craft to practice. I do not need it to do anything other than exist. I am not writing for an audience, nor am I writing for the money or the likes or the affirmation.
I am writing because I love of writing. Even if no one ever reads this.
Though - in case you are here reading my words and if you enjoy reading what I write, maybe you’ll stick around for my thoughts and insights, and maybe they’ll spark some ideas or a moment of relatability in you that says “I am not alone.” But also, if none of that happens, I am ok with this. The key thing is…
I am writing.