Yeah… this post is a bit late don’t you think? I mean it’s April of 2018 and here I am about to give my thoughts on blogging last year. There are some Facebook posts explaining what I’ve been busy with, but for anyone new here who hasn’t read ‘em, the basic gist of it is that life stuff has been keeping me busy. In addition to that, I’ve been doing more introspection than ever and have been learning many new things. Most of those things will be a focus in new entries, and I’m excited to talk about them once I look through notes.

One of those things involves managing my time better, so I decided that the best way to put this to the test is to resume blogging consistently. With that said, let’s jump right in, shall we?

When I think about my time spent blogging in 2017, it feels like 2017 didn’t really “start” for me until I started writing again. I returned to it for a multitude of reasons. One obvious reason is that I missed the whole process and the feeling of working on something until it’s just right. Another reason is the fact that enough time had passed which allowed me to absorb new things that I knew would serve as fun topics. Kinda’ funny how I’m feeling that way about recent experiences now, it must be a recurring thing.

One big reason for blogging last year was Halloween. It’s easily my most favourite time of the year, and I knew I always wanted to do something big and different than usual to celebrate it. Since I hadn’t blogged about it in the years before, I knew I wanted to give it my absolute best and talk about my most treasured Halloween-related memories. I spent a good chunk of time planning what to talk about and had a blast with it, even managing to save some ideas for this year.

In addition to blogging about Halloween, I got back into livestreaming on Twitch around the same time and played horror-themed games. That was a lot of fun, and although I don’t stream as much as others, it reminded me of the fun I had from streaming back in 2014. I watch how much Twitch has grown and I’m glad to be a part of it. I’m not partnered, nor am I an affiliate, but it’s an exciting way of staying in touch with my love for video games. Plus, it’s great being able to hang out with people who share the same interests.

After those Halloween posts, it almost felt like the motivation to be topical was shrinking. I sort of but not entirely blame the Christmas season for this. I’ve nothing against the holiday; but like many people, the season drove me a little crazy and I got sucked into the planning as well as hectic family stuff that kept coming up. The fact that I didn’t write even one post about Christmas might’ve shown a lack of interest in the holiday season, but I do really like the idea of talking about Christmas-related childhood memories and thoughts on it much like I did with the Halloween entries. I’ll admit that I don’t like Christmas as much as I enjoy Halloween, but it can still be a fun time. If anything, I may have to plan blog posts about it much earlier (especially since I know it’ll be a busy time again, heh).

Sometime towards the end of 2017, I started to rethink how to approach my goals. I’ve always felt that it’s important to have goals regardless of whether a new year is rolling in or not. But still, a new year can be a good motivator when you start looking back on things and think how things could be better. When you really dive into that, you often find yourself wondering that it’s not just about goals and improving things, but it’s also about what you value and how you think about yourself.

They say it’s not good to talk about goals too much, and it makes sense why. It can create expectations from others, and that itself might add feelings of pressure. Sometimes, one might be overwhelmed at the thought of living up to this, wanting to fulfill those goals and whatnot. And then from there, it’s always possible that you end up reconsidering your values and that can get you thinking about yourself and what you’re really passionate about.

Having said that, I knew that I had to give myself more time to focus on improving myself, learning how not to cave into stress like I’ve done before. This is helping me learn how to approach job interviews more comfortably while still being level-headed, so it feels like the time spent figuring this out has definitely been worth it.

So where do I go from here? Well I already know the answer, it’s just a matter of getting there. I still plan on writing and gradually implementing new ideas as time goes on, so that’s always my goal in the long run. 🙂

Thank you for reading, and always remember that no matter what time it is, it’s never too late to chase after your dreams.  See you next week! o/