My blog’s story

This week I had the coolest opportunity ever: I was invited by April Pad to share my blog’s story to a newsletter and network of websites. I’m very happy to share why I started blogging and hopefully drive some visitors. I’m reposting my story, originally published on their website.

My favourite activity in high school was writing essays. In fact, I was so good at it that mine were paraded from class to class like a triumphant parade that’s supposed to encourage other students to do like me. It helped me analyse entire books and stories, dwelling into the problem and putting it front and centre.

After finishing high school at 19, I felt what I could only describe as a dark and cold emotional vacuum: I had missed all deadlines for university applications and all my friends pursued their own goals. Despite all my achievements I made during my late-teens, I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve strayed too far off the picture I painted of myself as a child.

From simple introspection to the start of my blog

In the summer of 2019 I decided to take a deep breath, sit down for a moment and draw out a plan for the following five years: I found a film academy with admission dates in September and decided to put my essay-writing skills to good use – both to work on my personal growth and embrace solitude – leading to the start of my blog.

Initially, my posts were nothing different than a diary or a digital journal. But I soon found out that writing feels therapeutic and it calms me down, because it requires me to sit and be one-track-minded for an hour. I started by dedicating each post to a character flaw in my and fix it by going through it’s entire history and cause.

During my first year of film school, I had to attend several photography and composition classes that helped me see the world through a camera-lens. My friends often joked that my camera had become a vital organ. It only felt natural to post my pictures along with my essays and soon enough my blog became an outlet for my hobby.

Not enough visitors: the struggle that never ends

These posts were never meant to be shared or promoted, but as time went by, I realized that people could find themselves in my stories and all my personal essays would prove helpful not only to me. But as cool and helpful as it sounds, managing a personal blog in the 2020’s is not exactly on trend. I still struggle with generating a steady visitor traffic and I’m still far from calling blogging my main hustle.

I’m not about to lose my motivation completely: every time I feel like nobody is ever going to read my posts, a wave of 30-40 people open my blog and it gives me enough will to write my next batch of paragraphs.

Even though I’ve been writing in my blog for the past five or six years, I’m still only starting. I find a way to reinvent myself every time I meet a dead end, so who knows what the future could bring. I’ll continue exploring the world and posting about it, even if nobody reads it. As they say in the theatre, you’ve got to put on the best show even if there’s one person in the audience.

The rest of my essays can be discovered through my blog’s columns.