What has changed
I started this website in 2013 a month after graduating from college. It began as a way to reflect on certain moments in my life and showcase skills I was developing to open up some doors down the road. Today my website still bears a resemblance to those original qualities but it has evolved into something more personal. I’m still a lifelong learner writing informative pieces to teach others something new and develop mastery of a topic along the way. However, my tone has become more subjective, driven by personal experiences to provide a voice in the conversation and perspective to help others avoid traps I experienced. I also still find moments of reflection, but the development of this writing feels more personal in the way that the audience I write for is me. This is purposely done in an attempt to make sense of something on my mind, rather than to impose on a reader. It feels cliche, but if I try to think of the primary catalyst of this change, it would be hard not to say age. Whether it is in the material I am motivated to write or the difference in wisdom and experience included in a previously shared topic, age has been this influence.
100 Posts in 10 Years
100 posts in a little over 10 years isn’t that special compared to the volume you see on many of the websites you frequent today, but given the difficulty of sticking with something for such a long period of time, I am happy with making it this far. Not only have I been able to continue to write, but I have seen the effort pay off in forms of positive feedback, introductions, and even consulting business. This might justify the effort put into this writing over the years, but it hasn’t been without the additional work to build, host, and manage the website. I have put work into this website like the vintage car that you love but breaks down every six months. Multiple website redesigns, CRM changes, web server migrations, and even a domain migration (Take that Irish radio host, Connor Phillips!) have happened over the course of this time. Maybe it would have been easier to use a templated blog hosting website, but the creative freedom the hands-on approach has given me has been an added bonus to running this website.
To the next 100 Posts
Today, as I write with more momentum than I ever had before, it is nice to reflect on this milestone, and my hope is that the next 100 comes faster than the last. The ever-present disdain for editing and writer’s block are the only things in the way, but if I still have the satisfaction of of hitting “Publish” today as I did a decade ago, then I can be certain saying that you will catch my 200th post.