Hey hi hello everyone, it's been a very long while! I haven't had the time nor the energy to write for my blog, though I have stories to tell. But first I want to break the ice with this post, because another reason I haven't written for so long is the urge to be perfect.
I want my blog to reflect who I am and what I'm capable of, as this thing is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. So whenever I have a first draft for a post (I have many), I end up leaving it in my drafts for a while with the intention to edit and publish it a few days later. But, you guessed it, that's where either life gets in the way or perfectionism starts to seep in. I simply forget I wrote something or tell myself it will never be as good as my last post, so I might as well leave it offline altogether.
I felt the most pressure after writing my best pieces, like my first popular blog piece on post-breakup shenanigans, after which dozens of people reached out to me to tell me how good it was or that they related. Or after my article on Malta's psychiatric hospital Mount Carmel went viral and was read by 40,000 people, after which I received hundreds of messages from strangers who appreciated it.
What do you do after success? You go on, I guess. But rather than having my little successes inspire me, they made me feel like I should be bigger and better after them. And that's simply not always going to be the case - I have written articles and blog posts that were read less after those hits, and they were probably just as good.
So why this post? Because I want to overcome my fear of being mediocre. Of writing and creating things that aren't my absolute best work. Of publishing posts that have not been edited twenty times. Of simply putting stuff out there in the world, even when it isn't my very best work, because it is still valuable and something that needs to be said.
On that note, I'll be trying to write more. And I have stories in store! I spent April in Thailand and Italy, two wildly differing experiences. In Thailand, I got myself on a luxury liveaboard (scuba diving boat) for 5 days for free, after spending 16 hours on a bus from my friend's place in Bangkok to an island. In Italy, I enjoyed the International Journalism Festival, which was absolutely incredible. More about those experiences and the rest of my life hopefully soon! (It's black on white here now, so I'll simply have to deliver).