Getting Over First Post Paralysis
I have attempted to start blogging at multiple points in my life, and for one reason or another I have never followed through. Towards the end of 2025 this idea once again crossed my mind, and I began looking into what platforms might be best for me. It was then that I was introduced to Bear.
At first, I wasn’t too sure. The layout was incredibly (pardon the pun) bear, and I struggled with the customization options available to me. As someone who grew up in the ancient age of MySpace and Piczo, a heavy amount of customization is what felt normal for me. I remember plenty of evenings sat at the home computer after school digging through abysmally messy lines of HTML and making the most abrasive website possible. Hot pink everywhere, and the background image a crusty JPEG of Amy Rose, tiled. Bear is the complete opposite of that.
I carried on looking around a different platforms, but something kept drawing me back. Even now I’m not sure what exactly it was that made me stick around, but I think a lot of my mind was made up by how collaborative the platform seemed to be. To elaborate on that, I’m talking about its cosy sense of community I picked up on after scrolling through the Trending tab for a little while. This, of course, followed by a realisation that I usually get so hooked on making my spaces so aesthetically pleasing that I never actually seem to use them for their intended purpose. The limited nature of Bear played to this quite easily, taking the option of procrastinating over details completely out of my hands.
As they say; just make it exist first, you can make it good later.
Even after saying this I have still spent a significant amount of time customising things. I have abandoned my "about" page for now because of this…
What's the point?
Mainly, I just want to improve my brain health. I haven't read anything at length since being in college and that's going on 13 years ago now (yikes!); I haven't written much since then either. Because of this, and likely other factors too, I have had a pretty obvious decline in my attention span. It is honestly atrocious and I want to work towards fixing it as soon as possible. I plan to actually start reading full books (!!!) again as well as slowing myself down when reading things like articles, blogs, etc. instead of skimming over everything.
I also want to become more educated. There is always something new to learn, and just because I am no longer in a school setting doesn't mean I cannot keep absorbing knowledge. God forbid I live an ignorant life. I think there is a lot to be said for stepping out of whatever echo-chamber you perceive yourself to being in and taking on opinion pieces from multiple angles, and what that can do for you on a personal knowledge level.
Maybe I also have some superficial goals in all of this too, but in whatever form they exist I would like to break away from them. Having been a pretty consistent artist in a high-traffic online space, the concept of virality is (unfortunately) hardwired into my brain. That is circuitry I would like to break.
What's next?
Who knows, besides doing my best to keep consistently blogging. I'm not sure why, but this start seems different from all the rest and I am pretty hopeful! As well as picking up reading again, I would also like to start writing about what I've read. This isn't really something I've done since I was 14 years old, and even then it was in a very simple "book report" style. I feel like actively taking notes and actually analysing what I'm reading will be very beneficial for me (and also, hopefully, a very interesting experience!).
Whatever the future of this blog looks like, I look forward to it.