Just checking in to document how proud and happy I am to see that I was able to stick with blogging for 9 entire years!
Since I’m feeling sentimental, I want to share a little story on why I created this blog in the first place.
The first ever blog—I remember—was called A Girl For God. I named it this because I had decided to begin a relationship with God in 2014 and had NO IDEA what I was doing, but I knew that I had always loved the idea of blogging and having my own website. (What definitely inspired me was Christian blogs like Girl Defined. I devoured their content like nothing back in the day.) I shopped around between Blogger and WordPress, and since I was already familiar with Blogger (the OG…I still have my original blog from 2016 on there where I STILL just write about randomness) I decided to venture out and in December 2015…I opened up my very first blog where I think I made about two posts. I can’t even tell you what I was writing about because I can’t even remember.
Anyway, I decided to stop writing on AGFG because I didn’t think it was time for me to do a blog because I wasn’t ok with the topic. Fast forward three years, after the blog is abandoned and sitting there cold with no content, I am in a small crisis. I start to make a lot of writing decisions in my head, including working seriously on a couple of my first book ideas, researching on how to write books successfully (those AuthorTubers! They really got me through a few slumps…) participating in my first ever NaNoWriMo, and then I remembered. WordPress.
Of course, a lot more happened in between. But most importantly, I found what I wanted to write about. It wasn’t as specific as it is now—which isn’t very specific still—but I knew I wanted my blog to be centered around pop culture. So I started writing on my then-ChromeBook and soon a very interesting and handsome topic came into my head.
K-pop.
One of my first posts was talking about Agust D, and his first mixtape, AGUST D. I sent it to my then-friend at the time, and she really liked it! And the two likes I got on the post at the time were enough to get the ball rolling. And I haven’t looked back since.
To any reader, the post may have just been a music review post about a rich, handsome Korean man who I found myself having a parasocial crush on at the time. But to me, that post was something special. It was about me sharing my heart on something I had an opinion on. Something I liked. Something I took time to edit and prepare with time and effort. I used my then baby writing skills to write a post that I still enjoy reading and reflecting on to this day, and that leap of faith has reaped nothing but wonderful benefits in my life.
Because of this blog, I have gotten job offers (I use it as a digital portfolio) and have been able to effectively help others with their own blogs through operating my own. Of course, I didn’t just think to do these things, but I started because a wonderful woman in my life (my aunt) told me to start writing once a month to get myself in a routine.
Since then, I have went on to publish very monumental (to me) posts on racism in K-pop, more K-pop, and some journalism ventures that has helped me begin to pursue my career greater in writing. And it wouldn’t have happened if I wouldn’t have taken that chance in late 2015 and decided that I would attempt to be a blogger.
So here’s to another 9 years!
If you’d like to read some of my posts mentioned in this post, they will be linked below:
Michael Jackson post (the journalism I was talking about)
Thank you to all who have taken your time to read, visit and check up on my blog. I am more than thankful for you!
~ Shanedra
Shanedra Writes Too Much 