Monday, January 16, 2006

BLOGGING, ONE YEAR AFTER: A BLOGGER’S CONFESSION

This is my 54th post for this blog and it is over a year since I started “blogging” but it is only in March of last year that I begin to write seriously. I had to admit that I had a different conception of what I’m going to write when I started but after a year and 53 blog posts, that conception is how would I put it, “expanded”. I got the idea of blogging when I happen to read about them in the papers and actually stumbled on one during one of my surfing sessions. I realized then that this would be my vehicle to “share” my thoughts. Ever since high school, I’ve always kept a journal of my thoughts. It is not a diary of everyday happenings but thoughts, a.k.a. my interpretation of things surrounding me as well as various quotes from “great men” and their philosophies. It is these thoughts that shaped the person that I’m now. I still continue that “philosophical” musing through college and until now. Then sometime in 2004, a bright young lady text me a nice quote and I felt obliged to “reply” with one and I send her one of my “thoughts” and it goes like, “Life today is not an abrupt jump from yesterday but the summation of the gradual accumulation of evolutionary changes that happens in the past.” She then replied and ask for another one, which I again obliged by sending her this quote, ”Life doesn’t wait for anyone. Take charge and siege the day.” After which, she suggested that I share it with the rest of the world. And so here I am, blogging to share my thoughts. Actually, I was quite reluctant to share my thoughts because these are personal to me. These are what made me into what I am and I am a very private person. To share it with a total stranger is unthinkable. However, I also noticed that there are some people I knew who are in my view “lost”. They seemed not able to grasp what is happening around them. In my view, they are both naïve and somewhat fail to understand who they are. I felt that I could help them understand, help them reach their potential because a long time ago, I was in the same dilemma but I am able to “grow up” thanks to my journal of thoughts. I know I could sound too presumptuous and cocky as well but if somebody or anybody for that matter could get something from my thoughts and utilize it in their lives then my blog’s mission would be complete or so I thought. As I go through with my writings, I began to explore. And in the process, I discovered something else entirely, something that I least expected. I’ve discovered myself. Blogging enabled me to measure the depth of my soul and helped me mapped out the limits of my being. By writing down my thoughts, I was able to understand that subconscious part of me that I always knew but never had the time to articulate nor discover. In the end, instead of helping others discover themselves, I discovered myself. Looking onwards to another year of blogging, I look forward for more of such discovery of myself as Socrates would suggest, “know thyself” in order to understand the world outside. However, I would so admit that I wouldn’t publish everything since my life isn’t an open book and I prefer to keep the most intimate details of my being to the people that I’m very close to but I would share as much as possible my thoughts. I still had many of them and I haven’t written all of them yet. My only problem is writing it. You see, I’m not an extemporaneous writer and I can’t write without thinking it through or without an inspiration of sort, which partly explains why my blog posts are quite long in the first place and it could actually take me days to finish a single post, which is why some of the topics written are “delayed”. However, once, I had “it”, I could go on for days and if you notice, the topics of my posts are somehow related to each other, it is because of that. I try giving myself deadlines to post an article and thus treat my blog like a newspaper column but I failed miserably. I failed because when I am interrupted, I could “lose” my inspiration and I find it difficult to continue with what I’ve written. This is why I had plenty of half finished articles, which I coined as “almost blogs”. Hopefully, I could continue them someday when I “regained” my inspiration but for now, I’m looking forward to the future and inside of me to discover, to explore, and to grow.

My first 53 blogs:
1. On my thoughts.
2. The sailor in me.
3. Saluting a great man.
4. The sand castle.
5. Rites of initiation.
6. The person that I want to be with now.
7. To Neverland and back again – on growing up and being a kid again.
8. The purpose of life – a reply to a friend.
9. Approval addiction – an analysis.
10. Another murder of my generation and I’m angry.
11. Sorry for the tears.
12. A quote and a historian’s rumbling.
13. The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker.
14. Listen to my wife.
15. My mini library – part 1.
16. My mini library – part 2.
17. The day of reckoning – simply unthinkable.
18. My mini library – part 3.
19. The martyr wife.
20. The seven stages of man by Willian Shakespeare.
21. On being 30.
22. On being 31.
23. My contract.
24. A manifesto of our commitment.
25. The road not taken.
26. Steve Jobs.
27. Chinese Valentines’ day.
28. Unrequited love.
29. My cousin Philip.
30. Outsourcing.
31. September 11.
32. A wise guy speaks.
33. When I’m 80….
34. Mid – autumn festival.
35. The tallest tree.
36. To my love, happy birthday.
37. The ceremony.
38. EVAT law and the Philippine society: a historian’s view of a crisis in the making.
39. Philippine politics and the economy.
40. 68 more visits to the grave……..
41. Book launching.
42. Writing about how to start a business: a disclaimer.
43. For the love of the game: the purpose of business.
44. What motivates you?
45. “My” philosophy of money.
46. December 25, 1914.
47. Ethics of greed.
48. Entrepreneur.
49. SWOT/TOWS
50. I condemn….
51. Day 1 of 2006, what a start!
52. T’is the season………
53. The new year.

2 comments:

Jaz said...

We share the same sentiment, more or less. I initially started blogging because some friends of mine insisted that I do. I think they find my thoughts and reactions to stuff pretty darn amusing and thought that probably I could pull off being the Carrie Bradshaw of the Philippines. Ha, as if! My writing sucks and am more of a typer than a writer, but after a couple of entries and seeing people commenting and sending me mails for my posts, I guess I developed the desire to continue on.

And true, we find and rediscover ourselves as we help others discover themselves through our posts and entries.

Wishing you more posts for the coming year!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the encouragement. " )