Why I Chose to Create this Blog
Sharing of Experiences
I created this blog with the intention of forming a safe space for me to write about and share my experiences. I have many fellow readers that follow all of my other content on social media, but they never get to see the real me. I hardly get to talk about real-life issues aside from slipping in smalls truths within my poetry every now and then. I host polls through my Instagram story, where my followers can vote on which topics they want to hear about next. I choose topics that I’m passionate about, so that it isn’t some surface-level blog that readers don’t take anything away from.
My goal is to dive deeper into heavier topics. As this is a creative lifestyle blog, I tend to write a lot about topics, such as my creative writing process and how I get into the zone of writing. I also wanted to share experiences within my personal life, that many people seem to be inquisitive about. I have already written two blog posts about Antiochian Orthodoxy, and those posts have been very well received. The very first post I uploaded on this page has been doing astronomical number since it was first published.
To my surprise, my readers seem to be more interested in hearing about my personal life, which is something I don’t mind sharing. Thanks to you all, I’ve been giving and receiving several business offers that has to do with my blog that is barely two weeks old. I want to share the best lifestyle topics and tips that I have to offer to you all. I’m finding more and more ways to become more transparent online within the writing community niche, and I want to hear your responses and ideas for directions this blog can take.
Education of Mental Illness
A major goal of mine within my writing is to educate those who are unfamiliar with the reality of mental illness, and those who suffer from it. Being diagnosed with mental illness was a very tragic and insightful moment for me, and it has been a long and challenging journey ever since. From dealing with different dosages and side effects from medication, to not being able to get out of bed due to migraines and extreme mental fatigue; many of these symptoms are overlooked and seen as “laziness”.
For my senior project in my advanced poetry writing class, I chose to write within the theme of mental illness throughout the entire semester. My final project came out great, although I faced many struggles during the semester that caused me to miss several assignments and classes throughout the Fall. What keeps me going is the hope that my hard work and consistency will pay off, which is something that does tend to do so.
I’ve been offered several internships paid and unpaid, throughout this past semester that put me through the cycle of suffering ‘imposter syndrome’. I didn’t feel like I deserved the recognition that I was receiving, even though I have been putting in the work for years. Then, of course, there are times where I feel I deserve more than what I’ve worked for. It’s a never-ending cycle, but in end, I know my worth and I know the worth of my writing portfolio has only increased over time. The amazing support of this brand new blog is proof of that.
I’m More than a Poet
I had the amazing honor of publishing my first poetry novel ‘Gold Mouth’ on September twenty-first, two-thousand eighteen. Although this is a major accomplishment for any writer, this is not all I want to be known for. Writing isn’t all about money to me, but it is important for me to sustain myself and to make a livable wage doing what I love. Famous poet Nikita Gill was on Instagram live one morning expressing how hard it is for real, down to earth, poets to make a liable profit off of their novels. This is a problem I plan on solving by increasing my online presence and developing multiple streams of income.
Most successful people have several reliable streams of income and create streams of passive income on top of that. When it comes to writing for a living, writers have to write as much as they possibly can until they begin making enough money to be able to focus on other things. Another thing I enjoy doing is publishing articles through my Medium page. This is a platform for thousands of writers and publishers to publish their articles with the possibility of monetizing those articles and getting paid. It sounds like a dream come true for many writers, but it involves a lot of hard work.
I went almost a year without publishing any articles, because I wasn’t balancing my writing and kept my focus on poetry alone. I received my first article payment back in October, and it was refreshing to know that this can become a possible passive income for me. The only difficulty for me is time. I am still a full-time student as I pick up a minor in English along with a paid internship in the spring semester. I set aside time to write, and this usually works, but there are times when I sit down to write and nothing happens. It is then that I get discouraged and start to feel inferior in my writing abilities. Although this is all untrue, learning to balance all of these platforms is something I may never get used to, but it is also something I will keep working to perfect.
Freedom of Expressing Myself
A blog is a place for someone to be very transparent with their readers. I’m creating this online blog as a safe space to share knowledge, ideas, opinions, and experiences. One thing I will shy away from is politics, because I’m very sure that politics is the last thing anyone wants to discuss online. As a poet, I state my own arguments within my pieces and that is how I tend to express those emotions in a more cathartic way. Since I’ve been within an Orthodox church, my entire outlook on life has changed dramatically as far as what I choose to and to not address.
I recognize that my energy is very valuable, and that I don’t have very much of it, although I would love to. I would rather spend my energy praying to God, studying the Bible, praying to the Saints, and reading about the history of Orthodoxy, than spending my time online arguing or debating my lifestyle choices with anyone. There are times where I do have the energy to do this and I can be completely relentless, but it’s all about deciding what is necessary at the time.
Although I am only twenty-two years old, I have experienced a multitude of challenges and traumatic experiences, as well as amazing life-changing miracles. I want to share with others what works for me and what helps me through tough times, in hopes that it may help someone else. Instead of keeping everything to myself and remaining silent, I want to take a step outside of my introversion and share what I have to read with my loyal readers and supporters that live all over the world.
Trying Something New
I am very new to blogging, although it may be difficult to tell. I’m not new to writing at all, but blogging is something I’m quickly picking up on thanks to my pals on Pinterest and Instagram. I wanted to do something outside of publishing official articles in the hopes that someone on that platform would notice me. I realized that I have my own domain, supporters, and the ability to write as many blog posts that I can. Writing in different styles, on different platforms, in different genres increases a writer’s experience and longevity.
Whether mainstream poets and writers want to believe it or not, life is more than a cluster of cliché haikus. Writing can be a long strenuous process, in contrast it can also be a very enlightening experience. For me, writing is a major part of my healing from mental illness. It’s a gift given from God that I am constantly working on and perfecting to the best of my ability. I chose to take the initiative of going deeper into my writing experience, and I talk about this more in my post about ‘Why I went Insane in Advanced Poetry’.
Creating this blog is the first step I am taking to push myself even further, to write things I’m afraid to write about and to say things I normally wouldn’t say. If you personally have any topics you would like for me to discuss, please feel free to mention them below in the comments. I also host a poll every week on my Instagram story, where my followers vote on what they want to read about next. This is just the beginning of a very exciting chapter within my writing career.
