I’ve had this blog for over a year. It started off as me being bored sometime last May and thinking "Hey! I should start a blog". But not any blog of course, I couldn’t do with a Google Site or a Wix blog. Heck, I didn’t even want a free .wordpress.com blog. No, it had to be mine.
I persuaded and pleaded with my parents to shell out the roughly 9000 INR (approximately £85) for 3-years of hosting until they eventually relented. I was determined to make sure that I put this blog to use – and so I did. I stuck to my very demanding plan of (at least) 2 posts a month for 8 months until it unravelled in January of this year. You see, I was holding myself to the idea that I must post twice a month.
This attitude was the downfall of my schedule. The first few months were enjoyable, I wrote on whatever took my fancy: my forays into programming, societal expectations, minimalism, MUNs, and this cool app called Obsidian. After the honeymoon period was up, I was struggling to think of things to write about or when I didn’t, I was stuck on what to say about it. The obligation to creativity was unenjoyable.
The tipping point was when I watched Soul. For those unaware, Soul is a delightfully powerful movie that reminds you that you should stop taking shit for granted and enjoy life with special emphasis on the "enjoying life" part. I wasn’t enjoying writing, I was fettered by it. And so, I stopped.
I went on a 3-month hiatus until I felt the spark to write again. I wrote another 2 posts in April, one on the emphasis of something being valuable and the other on how we try to overcome our impermanence. One was inspired by the Not Overthinking and the other by a wave of sadness where my rants to a friend turned oddly poetic enough that I made a note of them for later. You can guess which is which.
At this point, I wanted to get back into the flow of writing without the feeling of being forced to irking behind my shoulder. One of my friends, who’s a poet (take a look here), posted something about a creative writing group session on her story so I asked about it. After talking to the group organiser, I was in – message them if you do want to join.
Prior to the first and only session I’ve taken part in til date, I felt extremely out of my depth. I’d realised that like my friend, the majority of the group were also poets. I am/was not. I was set more at ease when I asked if the pieces we wrote could also be prose. With that, I wrote a short piece on inspiration that was quite well-received. Some thought that it was a poem and looking back at it, I’m not sure that I disagree.
My writing journey has weaved its way in and out of my life like a vine climbing through the cracks in a wall – organic, whimsical, and unpredictable. This blog will be the book that holds my story. Just you wait.