I celebrated my two-year blogiversary on Tuesday and I honestly can’t believe it. I have mixed emotions because I’m internally ruminating on the feeling that nothing has changed and everything has changed. I don’t know. It’s just a thought.
This post isn’t going to be about blogging lessons about things like SEO and marketing (though I have learned a lot on those fronts). Today, I am specifically going to discuss life lessons that have stemmed from blogging in the last two years. I hope you enjoy.
//I’ve Learned How To Talk About Myself
I never really noticed this until I started blogging: I don’t talk about myself that much. Even when conversing with my best friends, I’ve always been the listener. I’m the one that asks questions and lets the other person vent about their problems.
I had always compared myself to elementary school me, so I saw the improvements in my life very clearly. I never talked that openly about having a special needs sibling until high school. I would mention that my brother had autism, but that was that. Once I was in high school, I would tell people all the time because that is such a huge part of my story. I’m actually the odd one out here because I have never known another special need sibling who talks as candidly about their unconventional life as I do (and I’ve met plenty of them).
And that’s not even the main thing I write about (because every time I write about it, I cry). I’ve discussed so many other aspects of my life and have interwoven my life story into nearly all of my advice posts. I’ve never liked being the center of attention because I was never the center of attention growing up. My parents had other things to worry about, so I did my best to not be a nuisance. This meant that I never really learned how to talk about my problems. Or even talk about myself at all in school until I was eleven. After that, I made many leaps and strides and became a much more social and confident person.
Even so, writing this blog was different. It has allowed me to be a lot more introspective about my life and now I give myself permission to share it. Even outside of the internet, I talk to my friends and cousins differently than I did before I started this blog. I am so much more comfortable talking about myself without thinking that act to be selfish. I think that’s a lesson that I am still learning.
I feel very uncomfortable posting pictures of just me because that feels super self-absorbed. I think I took a less extreme, but similar approach to talking about myself. I still hate being the center of attention, but I’m so much more comfortable communicating my thoughts and experiences.
//I’m Not A Terrible Writer
Before I started this blog, I had a preconceived notion that I was a terrible writer. I honestly can’t remember where this came from. I’ve always liked to write; it’s just I never thought that I was any good.
On my second month of blogging, I reached 15,000 pageviews and that has steadily climbed over the last two years. Even so, it took months of my friends telling me that my blog was really good for me to truly believe that I can write well.
When I was at YALL Fest last November, an author described my feeling towards writing perfectly. It went something like this: “You just have to accept that everything you write is complete and utter crap, and keep writing anyway.” I still get that feeling sometimes. The feeling that I am a terrible writer and who am I to publish anything on the internet. I just have to remember that this is how people become better writers.
They just keep writing.
//Appreciate The Small Progress
I am in the exact same place I was two years (and 3 days) ago when I started this blog. I am laying on my bed in my childhood bedroom typing on my (albeit different) laptop. Creating this blog has made me hyperaware of the passage of time (which makes sense since it’s literally called Making My Way.)
It’s easy to think about all the things that are exactly the same. It’s different this year because my second year of blogging has included lots more changes than the first, but it’s still kind of cathartic. Last year, I was kind of depressed that my life wasn’t that different, so I did something about it. Even though a lot of aspects of my life were the same this past year (since May 29, 2017), I took the initiative to make progress.
I increased my income and expanded my business. I traveled internationally twice, and I took two other domestic trips with my friends. I rode on a plane for the first time, then rode ten more after that! Those are all such cool and amazing things!
There are small points in progress, too. That’s the best thing that this blog has done for me. I’m not going through the motions of life. I’m actively reflecting on it and appreciating the progress I’ve made.
//You Don’t Need To Blog For Business To Be A Good Blogger
There’s this common belief among new bloggers that in order to become a good blogger, you have to make a lot of money. I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. I don’t make a profit from this blog. I have made money, but I pretty much break even. Any extra money I’ve made is invested back into this site, whether that’s through buying a nice design or learning from an E-Course.
I think in my first year of blogging, I focused on how I should be trying to make money, even though I didn’t want to yet. I did make money in my first year (more money than I did this year actually), but I slowly stopped believing that I wasn’t a good professional blogger because I didn’t make thousands of dollars.
Tens of thousands of people have read what I’ve written. I’ve gotten emails from readers in China and Mexico. That is such an amazing thing. And I wasn’t appreciating it fully because I was comparing myself to others. I’ve gotten emails and comments from other special needs siblings who have said that I described their experience perfectly and that I’ve made them feel less alone. My writing did that! That’s more than I could have ever hoped for!
The life lesson in this regard is that society tells you that if you don’t reach the highest standard of whatever you’re doing, you’re not good enough. I’m South Asian, so I get that type of pressure from my family all the time. I never intended to make money on this blog in the first few years because I didn’t want to. It’s a long-term goal for sure, but I don’t think not monetizing it is taking away its value.
I’ve helped a lot of people. And writing here has definitely improved my life, so in that sense, it is successful.
Well, that was a very loaded post. I can’t believe that it’s been two years and so many people are reading this right now. I can’t thank you all enough for sticking around and I hope you continue to do so because I have so many dreams for my life and I plan on documenting all of them here.
I’ll see you Monday.
Do you have a blog? What is the greatest life lesson you’ve learned from it?