24 April 2015 was the day I spontaneously started up my blog. My first post was the usual 50 Facts About Me.
I wasn’t sure what to do to celebrate two years of ‘SaabirahLawrence’ so I decided to talk about my blogging journey so far, the ups and the downs.
I read Fola’s One Year Of Blogging post and her blogging experience is very similar to mine. Starting a blog was just out of boredom and because I really wanted to share my thoughts, I needed an outlet.
Blogging has been a mixture of so many emotions. I’ve felt nervous, excited, angry, sad and incredibly inspired. Blogging has allowed me to express those emotions, I have allowed myself to say so much and to meet so many amazing people.
It’s been stressful at times, but that’s only because I have put a lot of pressure on myself to put out quality posts on a regular basis.
I am learning not to compare myself to others. I can praise someone else’s writing, without questioning my ability to write well. A lot of my lack of confidence in my wording stems from school, I really enjoyed creative writing and I was great at waffling lol. A simple sentence turned into an unnecessarily long paragraph when my pen and paper met and thoughts started to flow. Academically school wasn’t great for me; the laughter and experiences are the things that made my time at school bearable.
I now find myself quickly clicking links to blog posts and articles. Blogging has definitely sparked an interest in writing, I have even considered going to writing classes to develop my writing skills.
Always surprised when I get compliments on my writing. Writing is not one of the things I would have complimented myself on, but I guess that’s something I have to work on, I gotta believe in my sauce.
Growing up I kept myself to myself and tried to be someone who would be respected and make my family proud. Even though I still want to make my family proud I have also realised that the person I want to be isn’t the person I was trying to be. Blogging has given me the opportunity to talk about the things I want to talk about and the space to say what I want to say.
“Honesty is the best policy” – Blogging has encouraged this mindset and it’s influenced my style of writing. I’m inspired daily by honest and real bloggers & youtubers. Being honest and true to yourself is extremely scary, especially when hundreds of people will practically see you naked.
Being vulnerable is something I wasn’t very keen on at first, however, now I feel like a little bit of vulnerability is useful. Being vulnerable is scary but it’s only scary because people aren’t able to respect vulnerability without taking advantage of it sadly.
Whenever I’m struggling I turn to my blog and put my thoughts into a post. Sharing my thoughts and experiences has been great for me. It’s also helped me realise that I’m not alone. It’s weirdly comforting to know that I am not the only one with crazy and sometimes unhappy thoughts.
In two years I would have hoped that I would have achieved more in my life to write about. If I look at my blog posts so far I can see growth, improvement, and success. I downplay my wins all the time just because they aren’t huge successes, but I really need to praise all of my wins no matter how big or small.
I want to travel more, read more, go to more events and push myself to do more with my life and my blog. I’m so glad I started this blog, I can’t really imagine my life without it.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post and to show love. I appreciate every view and every comment. 💛
SAABIRAH LAWRENCE 