When I think about the word “blog,” I imagine a guy in the early 2000s posting about what he ate that day or how his dog chewed his shoes. I’m not doing that—neither I nor anyone else cares that I ate nachos last Wednesday, and if they do, that is what Instagram is for. The word “blog” also stirs up images of get-rich-quick YouTubers trying to convince me that I can make 1,000 dollars a day by writing blog posts and drop-shipping. I’m not doing that either—most likely I’ll lose money keeping this website up, I don’t have a product to sell, and I don’t really want to build a brand. So what is the purpose of the blog? Well, I want to become better at writing, I want an excuse to learn, and yes, I do want to show off a little bit.
Reflecting on my freshman year of college, I realized that my talent for writing was lacking. So my first intention with this blog is to strengthen my impoverished writing skills; practice makes perfect, and writing articles about topics that interest me or about my various hobby projects seems like a good way to get that practice. I also want to justify my tendency to go down rabbit holes and spend hours researching whatever random topic piques my interest. Now when I spend ten hours researching sheep breeding, it’s no longer a “waste of time” but research for my blog. Finally, I admit I want to show off a little bit. I want to show my friends and family who are geographically distant from me what I am up to in a way that a picture on social media can’t really capture. My target audience really is my grandma, some assorted cousins, and maybe my great uncle.
As you might have inferred, this blog really has no fixed topic or theme. I am going to write about whatever happens to capture my interest, and so the articles will most likely feel eclectic and disconnected, which is perfectly fine for a blog that doesn’t need to make any money. One article may be about the aforementioned sheep breeding, and the next might be about the history of pumpkin pie, and if I am brave enough, there might be an article about politics.
This blog is not a personal journal or a brand-building tool; it is a way for me to improve my writing skills, chase my curiosity, and communicate over the internet more thoughtfully. I intend to write about what interests me. Someday my blog might provide some insight or entertainment to an internet person, and that would be really cool, but that is not the primary reason I have this blog; its main purpose is my own personal development.
