the joys of personal blogging
I recently graduated from college and now grappling with what to do with my life (that's another post for later). I've been spending my post-grad life rediscovering activities that used to make me happy or other creative endeavors I used to pursue or have always wanted to pursue.
I thought about my hobbies as a kid before school got serious and took over my life. I realized that I used to blog. For fun. I had a Tumblr and a Taylor Swift fan blog I kept up with every single day. And looking back, I actually enjoyed it. It was almost like a full-time job. I wish I could count all the hours I spent maintaining my blogs.
Not only was it a great place to be creative (design my site, edit my photos, write, etc.) but it was a place where I had a tiny community of people who shared the same interests I had (if I remember correctly, my Taylor Swift blog had about 5-10 daily visitors, which isn't a lot but still a lot to an 11-year-old).
Thinking about this, I started to miss those days. Those days when I looked forward to getting home from school so I could hop onto my hot pink, mini Asus laptop and spend my time (time I should be spending on homework) blogging. I loved customizing my own website, writing for fun, and connecting with people online. Because of this, I've had a recurring thought in my head recently of whether I should start blogging again.
These past summer months I've been looking for the ideal blogging platform for my needs. I've tried WordPress, Wix, Blogger, and Substack. While these platforms are meant for beginners or people who have no experience in coding AKA me, I still found the platforms annoying to use (don't get me wrong, I love the idea behind Substack but I don't like the site design lol). So I kept off the "should I start blogging again" thoughts.
Until today 9/9 (or yesterday, it is 12:12 am 9/10 as I'm writing this), I decided to go back to it. Finally set up a blog and write my first post. Before doing this, however, I was looking for other blogs to follow and gain inspiration from. Then I randomly stumbled upon Bear blogs.
I instantly fell in love with this platform. So simple, minimal, easy to use, and brings about the nostalgia associated with personal blogs from the 2000s. This platform is built to be focused on your writing or whatever your heart desires to share. Exactly what I wanted. And enjoying it here so far.
When I was setting up this blog today, it brought back memories of me staying up until 2 am customizing my Tumblr site (incessantly searching for cute themes that matched my "aesthetic" at the time), reblogging 'justgirlythings' photos, writing long-winded posts about pop culture gossip that I did not fully understand, or other blog activities. I mean, I can't deny... it was a fun internet era.
So, I'm blogging again. Bringing back that joy I had as a kid.