Why I Still Blog in 2024

When I was little, I used to bring a notebook and a pencil everywhere I went. We’d stop somewhere and I’d bring out the said duo and started writing whatever. Now–25 years later–it’s as if nothing’s changed. I am still the same girl with the same habit but this time with a Pilot pen and a fancy notebook my adult money can afford.

I still remember the first ever blog post I wrote. It was November 3rd, 2008, I had just created a Blogger account and I wrote about a recent trip to buy school books for the upcoming school year. I was merely a 13-year-old with a HP laptop who discovered that there was a space online I could call my own and write to my heart’s content. You can figure out what happened next. Almost 16 years down the line and I’m still here.

Still on my laptop.

Still writing.

Still excited to have even one reader reading what I write.

To me, keeping a blog is never about trying to fit in or trying to be a famous influencer or whatever you call a successful blogger these days. I write for myself. I need an outlet for creativity and writings and maintaining a blog is a great way to hone those skills even more so when I self-hosted my blog on WordPress since 2016.

Eight years of doing everything myself with the help of my hosting company. I shed blood, tears, and sweats for this blog. I invested a sizeable portion of my net worth into this intangible online space that I hold so dearly to my heart all because I love to write.

That’s it. That’s my #1 reason why I’m still here.

I love to write

Or to rephrase it–I love to overshare. To me, the world would be a boring place if everyone decides to keep to themselves and never share. I love reading words. I love long captions and text-heavy blog posts and written letters and anything and everything words. Heck, I’d even write grocery list and put it up on the blog if I didn’t find it weird to begin with. But is it, though? Or is it just in my head? I mean, the possibility is limitless when you have the space to do everything.

This blog is a part of me

When you’ve been doing something for more than half of your life, you’re unable to see a future you without it. That’s what I feel for my blog. Sure, I have thought about retiring this blog and focus more on other microblogging platforms but they are not the same as owning a blog. They don’t feel like mine, you know? They are not my sites. I have to abide by their overly biased rules. I’ve had posts taken down, I’ve had some features restricted for a certain amount of time all because I said truthful things they didn’t like.

For whatever opportunity that might come

Pretty sure one of the reasons why I scored my previous job was because of my blog. I put them in my resume. I list them as experience because it is an experience! Writing, taking photos, editing CSS/HTML when you have no basic coding, hours upon hours of extensive research and thousands of blogs visited and read for more information. Not everyone is going to agree with me on this but hear me out–blogging is a job. Whether you get paid or not is a story for another day.

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To be honest, I don’t need a billion reasons to still be blogging in this era where Instagram and TikTok exist. My love for writing alone is suffice to keep me going. However obsolete some people may think blogging is these days, I’m going to close my ears, put on my headphones, and begin typing my next blog post.