You, the Blogger

At the beginning of the semester, while I was extremely excited to create my own blog that I could form in anyway that I wanted to, I was extremely nervous about putting a part of me out there. Previously, I would share my writing on sites like Wattpad or Tumblr (I still do aha) and would create a false sort of persona so no one was able to look at my writing and see me. I loved being able to share it with people who shared the same interests as me, but I never wanted to share who I was or my emotions. That’s what I was stressed about when it came to my blog. My aesthetics were dark and somewhat depressing, until I felt sort of odd about it. I’m not sure if it was because I was playing into those emotions that I have more than what I typically do in order to establish a ‘look’, but it wasn’t reflecting all of who I was anymore. My blog didn’t show my passion for dad jokes, or memes, or more of who I am. I think that was a major development as I was still trying to create a persona that showed only a portion of who I was rather than all of me. I went from being apprehensive when it came to showing who I was to being excited when I was looking at bright images that showed more of who I was. That was by far the largest development of my blog throughout the semester, as it was less of how I changed or adjusted it throughout the semester to look better and more of showing my progress as a person. Blogging allowed me to see how my outlook has shifted, even if it’s a slight shift, and I’m beyond excited to have seen it happen.

As much as I’m proud of the journey that my blogs been on, I’m still somewhat unhappy with it. I feel like it isn’t as cohesive as what it could be and admittedly, I still need to figure out the header image (the quality is AWFUL), but it’s still a work on progress like me. I didn’t change overnight, and neither did my blog. I mean, except for that one major change that I made where I changed literally everything about my blog because it was honestly really depressing.

I think that I’ll keep my blog going some after I’m finished with this class. I post some of my more….weeby…writing on a tumblr account that I have, however, I think that I’d still like to post some of my more personal pieces that show more personal emotion. Although, now that I say that I’ll probably end up forgetting my login or getting swamped with homework so as much as I say that I’ll still post on here, it’s more of a wait and see how things go.

I think that I’d like to look at some of my friends blogs to see what sort of things that they’re writing, or some of the absolutely astounding writers that we have in our class to look at for inspiration. I don’t think that I’d follow a specific blog consistently, but more of just a check in to see who previously inspired me and if I can draw anything from it.

Admittedly, I haven’t really followed any professional ‘bloggers’. I’ll read different articles that pop up on my feed that interest me but other than that, the closest that I get to following a professional blogger is watching vloggers on YouTube. I know, I know, it isn’t blogging, but I personally put them into the same category as it’s someone sharing their experiences. One of the vloggers who I follow closely is a Canadian living in Korea and previously Japan. Sharla is someone who I personally find extremely interesting as she has the sort of personality that you can relate to. She frequently posts videos on her YouTube channel ‘Sharmander’ detailing her adventures in Japan and Korea or just different things that she’s done, and it’s honestly one of my favorite times of the day to see her newest video pop up on my recommended feed.