An exaggeration, I know. Subtle hyperbole :’). What I meant was that it’s the official two month anniversary of Mismatched Memories, and it’s been a real wild ride. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two months since I opened wix.com and said “yolo let’s do it” because it’s quite honestly felt like four, five months since starting. I just think it’s cool that something that I started on a whim two months ago went on to become such a big part of my life, and this blog has 100% impacted my life in a positive way.
To just put it straight up, this dinky little Wix site is the creative outlet I never knew I needed. In the past few years, I've been kind of thinking of getting into the world of social media/Internet lifestyle content, but YouTube has always been at the forefront of my mind. It wasn’t until quarantine that I realized that blogging had so much potential. I feel like blogging is a happy medium between not having an outlet at all and showing my face and entire life for anyone on the Internet to see. Honestly, YouTube kind of felt like a pipe dream. I didn't think I would actually do it, and if I did it, then I think it would have been something for college or after.
Shoutout to Chicago because coming back here is a pipe dream :( I miss this and after the world resets, I want to visit again
I didn't realize that having a place to put all of my creativity would be so beneficial and that I would love it so much. I feel like in middle and high school, the academic and analytical side of myself took over. Although I did things like art and dance and music, they eventually faded into the background; I didn't really think of myself as a creative person, so I didn't think I needed a creative outlet. Boy, was I wrong. This blog gives me a place where I can spill my thoughts, try new things, or really do whatever I want to do. It's just been so much fun. Maybe three people actually read my posts, but the views don’t really matter to me as much as how fun the process of creation has been. You’ve definitely heard that before, but seriously, I don’t care about the numbers.
Kind of going along with that, blogging is something I started only for myself and I continue to do only for myself. Sure, it may give me some other opportunities along the way, but I don’t blog because it may look good or because other people may want me to. I think it’s genuinely fun and something I look forward to every day. I feel like especially now with increasing competition between peers and opportunities popping up left and right, it’s hard to distinguish what you want to do and what you “should” do. Blogging is definitely something that I want to do, and I want it to stay that way.
About the whole opportunities thing: I don't get big sponsorship brand deals or anything like that, but there have been people that have reached out to me and wanted to publish the link to my site in a magazine/website or use my photos, which I am really thankful for. I feel like these opportunities are great, but I don't really want to go out of my way to seek them; I want it to happen organically, and if it happens, it happens. I’m not looking for money or fame. I’m still going to go to college and get a (hopefully cool) job and live my life. Regardless, the opportunities that have come from the blog have been so cool, and I’m really grateful that people like my content!
Some views from another awesome city: Philly (rhymes wow).
I haven't really been publicizing my blog -- I haven't posted about it on Instagram or Facebook -- and at least for now, I like the more intimate feel of it. I'm very close with everyone reading these posts (hi friends), and I’m comfortable sharing my life with them because they already know me well. This may change in the future as I get more comfortable online, but as of now, I just want to blog for myself and keep my private information off the Internet (I don't have my face, last name, location, or anything like that on here -- just in case Internet creepers show up).
Not only has blogging brought me a lot of opportunities (okay not a lot, maybe three), but it's given me a sort of head start in media and a good jumping off point into another “medium”, like podcasting or YouTube. Podcasting sounds really cool, and I think it would be fun to try out; they’re definitely a lot more involved on the audience side because it's not reading a post for five minutes, it's listening to me yammer on for 45. Whether I do any of that sort of podcast business is still to be determined. I also think YouTube seems like something I’d enjoy. I would love to post lifestyle and music content on there, but the biggest drawback for me is privacy because people are going to know my name, face, and probably location; I'm not too cool with that idea right now, but maybe it'll happen in college or when I'm older. As of now, I'm just going to stick to typing my thoughts and inserting a few pictures. Also, don’t think I’m tired of blogging and want to move on or anything; I love this blog, and these are just my reflections on some of the other possible things I could branch off in do that are related to what I do no here.
One last landscape moment to end it off
This post was meant to be a sort of reflection on what happened in the last two months and how blogging has impacted my life, so I definitely want to touch on the lessons that blogging has taught me. First, it really helped me with planning because now that school is starting up, I have to work ahead. I have posts planned literally months in advance, so I've come to understand the huge value in planning not only generally, but in detail. For example, if I wanted to get to work on a specific post, it wouldn’t be very helpful to just say, “I want to do a what I eat in a day post”. Something better would be to say, ”I'm going to do a what I eat in a day post, I’ll format it like this, I'm going to post it on this day, and I'm going to feature all my meals from this day”. I have some ideas sitting there in a list, but figuring out exactly what I want in a post and where it fits in my lineup helps me keep everything straight and stay productive. Blogging has also helped me realize how much work is involved in creating content because it's not just writing and posting; there are brainstorming, production, and editing steps in between all of that. Blogging has shown me that my thoughts, even the random ones that I think other people won’t be interested in, are valued and appreciated. People have told me that they like my blog, and it's really a good feeling knowing that the content I work so hard to produce is being appreciated and loved by other people.
So that was a kind of sappy little post for my two month blogiversary. I’m really thankful that I decided to start blogging, and I’m really excited for what’s to come in the future. Happy blogiversary to me, and hope y’all enjoyed reading! Oh and to Mismatched Memories, if I haven’t said it enough, I <3 you.
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