On Blogs and Writing: What’s all this about anyways?
In the flowchart of life, I’ve always prioritized the destination over the journey. Obsessed with the far away realities of tomorrow, today, I stand near the start of my journey and look out over all the paths that lay before me.
The winding roads take me to futures where I’ve accomplished great things; I sit in an interviewee’s chair. Stare out at some foreign shoreline with my family beside me. Work tirelessly in a dimly lit workshop, tending to business, as my heavy eyelids threaten sleep with each passing second. Regardless of what lies at the end of each road, they all begin at the same place: sitting in front of a computer, writing the path ahead.
No matter which hobby I see being my future career at any given moment, I’ve always believed that the ability to write in a clear and coherent way is one of the most important skills anyone could have. So over the years as I’ve wrestled with deciding which hobby will be my “calling,” writing has been the sole throughline which connects them all. Though, it has always been more of a means to an end rather than the end itself.
Writing, in its simplest form, is the way in which I’ve seen the clearest path towards mastering any of my interests. Be it screenwriting, acting, becoming a financial analyst, owning a small business, or being a dutiful employee, writing was always what I believed would get me to my destination. It’s work which facilitates the journey. Regardless of the road, the first step has always begun with writing.
Even still, why start a blog? Blogging had rarely crossed my mind before my co-publisher, Maison Tran, proposed the idea over Thai food. In all honesty, blogging seemed antiquated compared to new forms of audio or visual-based media, but this seemed like a good opportunity to cut out the middleman. Instead of relying on my voice or physical appearance, a blog can only be judged upon the merit of my ideas and style. It’s also a more streamlined process than making videos or recording podcasts.
Oftentimes, my creative projects die at the production stage. I’ll write a final draft of a script only to let it sit and collect dust among the other projects that may never see the light of day. Thinking about it now, the writing of a thing has always been more fun than making the thing itself; setting the scene, fleshing out the characters, constructing the stage direction.
It’s refreshing to write draft after draft until a fully realized project sits in front of you, one in which you’re confident enough to share with the world. And when an idea is good enough, it practically writes itself.
So, while I do intend to utilize other mediums at some point, for now writing and publishing my work here will function to strengthen my skills as a writer. As I stated before, writing is the means to my proverbial end, so I’d like to be as strong a writer as possible.
Each post is an inch closer to where I want to be, and this is simply the first step to get there. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stick around for the ride.
