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I believe in the “initial why.”
It guides me in the right direction and prevents me from obsessing over external factors.
With this post, I want to define my “initial whys” for creating this blog. These will serve as reminders for the future me. The me who either feels demoralized or distracted by the numbers, likes, or other factors.
Flannery O’Connor, an American novelist, once said:
I write to discover what I know.
It’s beautifully phrased. And it inverts the concept of “I only write what I know.”
This is like the concept of “gain clarity to my thoughts.” For me, it’s hard to think my way out of a topic. It often gets even more complicated.
So, my best solution is writing my thoughts out.
Now, I admit: I don’t follow current events very often.
When someone asks me,
Hey! Did you hear about the (some current event)?
I rarely reply with a firm yes. Or if I do, it’s me pretending to know.
It’s not the best feeling. So, I want to become intentionally informed. I want to know how this world works.
But how can I do that?
In the future, any question I have can become a seed for a new blog post. The thought of publishing blog posts consistently will motivate me to learn and grow.
A blog post is my attempt to understand the world, or myself, a little better.
People like to look for tribes, or people who think like them.
It’s a great feeling to know that someone agrees with you or has the same taste in music as you.
But, it’s not so simple.
When you express your opinion to the world, many sides will react to it. It’s not always a binary yes or no.
Things might get messy.
I want to learn to deal with this. And I hope I can find people who share similar values and interests as me.
Now this might be harder for a college student like me to do.
You might think,
What can a 20 year old student give to the world by writing? You don’t even understand what life is about!
I respect this argument. But hear me out. I still believe there is one key way I can provide value.
I can document and share my process as a beginner
This is the most important value I can provide.
I once thought that I had to be an expert to share something online.
In fact, embracing the beginner mindset when writing can be surprisingly beneficial.
Before we dive in, let’s understand what happens when you’re not a beginner anymore.
C.W.Lewis, a British writer and theologian, calls this the “curse of knowledge.”
When you get so good at something, you forget what it’s like to be a beginner.
Imagine you want to learn a new skill. Let’s say drawing portraits.
Then you might be interested in how a total drawing noob is approaching this. You might ask:
How did a drawing noob go from “Jeez… this really sucks” to “Hey this is kinda good!”
That’s where sharing process as a beginner might provide value.
I always find it inspiring to realize that people I admire were once total beginner at what they’re good at now. And when I learn what steps they took, it’s even better.
Tim Denning, writer for CNBC & Business Insider, sums it up beautifully in this post:
When you share your process you accidentally teach.
With this blog, I strive to document myself experiencing the multi-faceted life.
I know I’m only twenty, but I’m going to use that as an advantage. And if what I share helps you in any way, I’m more than satisfied.
Even if my writing only helps one person, that’s more than enough.
I love to express my thoughts with different mediums.
Art. Cafe Photography. Music. And now blog.
This blog will be an extension of my mind and continuation of my lifelong reflection.
As a beginner blogger, I have a lot to learn, but I’m very excited about the future of the blog.
For now, I’m leaning towards posting on Medium. But in the future, I may try out http://mirror.xyz/.
With this blog, I strive to become a great writer who produces quality content. That’s the goal. And there will more articles to come.
Thank you for being awesome and reading this far! :)