End of 2022
Hey,
It is that time of year again. Another year over, more than 50 articles written and my blog celebrates its second birthday. Yay!
This is frankly also the time of year when I reflect on my blog journey thus far. You may be rolling your eyes at the screen right now and I don’t blame you because it feels as if I am writing reviews constantly.
And you wouldn´t be too wrong since it feels like yesterday when I wrote my 100th article reviewing my blog. Even though numerically, I only wrote three review articles thus far, now thinking about it. Nevertheless, I do find self-evaluation very helpful and necessary so no one can stop me.
I find self-evaluation necessary because in the present I can´t see how far I have come and that sometimes can feel dispiriting. With evaluations, I can see exactly how far I have come and how the future is not as bland as I expect it to be sometimes.
Another reason why I like to self-evaluate is that it helps track progress. It didn´t occur to me but in a CGP Grey video, there was a segment where CGP Grey pointed out that by periodically reviewing actions, decisions and effects, you could improve. If you don´t it is basically like tossing a dice, progress will be completely random.
It just helps to establish where you are on your journey, where you have been and where you could go. Just endless possibilities you could explore and I am just so psyched to explore them in the near future.
This year, I finally managed to write about travelling. Something I wanted to do since I was back in high school. It feels as if I finally could write about travel without sounding like a fact book rattling off the facts but also write about my experience.
I also can´t deny that I had tons of fun exploring the online dating world in my three-part series even though the online dating itself gave me somewhat of a headache. On top of that, I came out loveless, but I also came out of it with more experience and knowledge so I don’t consider this experiment a loss.
Another thing I am so glad about is that I had a platform to share my designs and drawings. A platform where I could explain my decisions while just experimenting with fashion and digital drawing. It is a valuable skill in my opinion and I am glad I spent time exploring it further.
However, most of all I am just glad that I could express my opinions on various topics. Most of the time, I just kept it all in my mind and none of it made sense because I didn´t lay it out so I could understand them but now I finally did and I gained more insight because of it.
To be fair, I am also excited to document my experiences. Since I know over time memories always fade but now I have documented memories I can turn back to if my mind should fail me someday. It is also good for me to take a step back and not let life as it currently is overwhelming me.
I know my blog is a far cry from anything resembling a structured blog. Frankly, I am not the blog that shares recipes or only writes about travel. I mentioned it once and I will mention it again, it is hard to find one interest therefore I just explore them all.
By exploring them all, I just feel as if I am not missing out on anything. Besides by exploring them all, I could maybe find a topic I am interested in and could write multiple articles about. Who knows? I certainly don’t but I am excited to see where this goes.
After writing all these articles, I still don’t consider myself to be much of a writer of any sort. I am just putting words on a page. That is it. Even after all this time, I still don’t think I am all too good at it either since the structure is lacking.
I certainly also wouldn’t know how to draw someone´s attention in and keep their attention there either. You may suggest that I simply cut down the number of words but by cutting my word count, I feel as if I am not challenging myself to think about this topic enough.
Therefore, I am in a bit of a dilemma but if this journey were obstacle-less, where would the fun and learning be? Besides, I feel that my article structure is getting better and better since now I can keep my article structure in my mind to avoid repetition and allows me to keep things orderly.
From a graphic design standpoint, I believe that my article designs are getting better. Some designs are certainly not up to my standard but sometimes I just have to work with what I have. Sometimes the idea of certain title cards ruins the final product.
However, some other times, the title card designs just fit the picture I had in mind perfectly. Every font just falls right into the picture which is just so satisfying. Sometimes it is just about the right inspiration and the right medium.
With the title designs, I also try to use my own pictures. Not because I dislike crediting the photographers but simply because I feel as if this is a natural next step for this blog. Even if it may come across as a step back.
It started with self-designed title cards but they just took too much time and effort. Now that I have somehow found my design style, I believe that I could try to incorporate my own work into the title cards soon even though I would still use credited photos sometimes because self-made takes longer.
With my own photos, I also have more creative liberty. I have the power to depict precisely what I want it to depict which is what every artist wants. Creative freedom. With other people´s photos, you can´t dictate what is on the photo but with your own you can.
Instead of posting articles with just photography, I decided to completely use my photography skills for the title designs since I found that the photography articles are just mindless and don’t challenge me enough just like the drawings articles.
As mentioned in my 100th article, I am nowhere close to being done. I still have so many ideas about what I could write and I just love the feeling of inspiration suddenly striking. With that inspiration, I could write and discover so much about the world and myself. It nearly feels surreal.
With this blog, I feel as if I am just at the start of a wonderful and experience-filled journey. I can´t stress this enough but I am just so excited to see where this goes. Knowing, I could live my life to the fullest because of this blog just feels freeing to a certain extent.
I believe I have mentioned this many times but I can´t say exactly what topics I would write about in the future since there are just so many possibilities out there. It is just thrilling to know that there are so many gems I could stumble upon in the future.
However, I do have some articles currently in the works. An article about focus since I have been told that I can concentrate unlike my constantly distracted peers even though I have a hard time focusing too. So I set out to understand what focus means.
Another article I have been thinking about writing was an article about if it is right to be wrong. I know it sounds confusing but it makes sense. I am still working on the explanation and ironing out some of the kinks. And I would be disappointed if this article isn’t out by this time next year.
I know I have been thinking about morality for quite some time now. The venus flytrap article did touch upon that but I do want to take a deeper dive into morality and immorality. I am just having a hard time finding a starting point.
There are certainly some articles I want to revisit and renew since it has been two years and some of my opinions back then are outdated now. So I feel ready to reread and rewrite some articles from the past.
But since I don’t want to make it boring, I will make sure to not copy past the whole old article but write it anew again. This is just a chance to let me rethink and dive deeper into the topics I have only scratched the surface of.
Since I really don’t want to make this longer than I have to, I hope everyone had a wonderful 2022 rediscovering the world with fewer restrictions and may the new year bless you with health, wealth, and happiness. I know that 2023 will hold amazing adventures for all of us. And I guess, until next year.
With lots of love
Aurelia J Hunter