My Last Daily Blog

When I set out to blog daily back in December of 2018, I never thought that I would hit 200 days in a row.

In some ways, I still can’t believe that I’ve made it this far. Blogging daily has changed my life and that’s not an exaggeration.

What I’ve gained from it

Have I become a millionaire because of it? No. Have I become famous because of it? No. Do more than 3 people read it? No (which is fine. I love you mom).

It’s been life-changing, not because of an outside perception of me by others but because of what I’ve learned through it. In November of 2018, I was scared to death of writing. I felt awkward, it took me hours to complete short posts. I didn’t enjoy it.

Now, writing has become second-nature to me. I’m certainly no expert and I certainly have a long way to go still, but I can sit down and write about pretty much anything. When I started daily blogging, I could only write about something that was fresh on my mind. Something that had affected me that day. If someone handed me a sheet of paper with a topic to write on I would have shriveled up and died.

Writing’s not the only thing I’ve gained

On top of the obvious skill of writing, blogging daily has helped me in areas that I never would have dreamed of.

The first one is overall creativity. Especially in the first 100 days or so, my mind was just a constant swarm of ideas and thoughts. I was paying attention every day to things that I could write about later. I’ve lost some of this now, I think mainly just because I’ve gotten the routine enough that I don’t need to have a fresh topic.

Even now though, I can’t have a day go by where I don’t think of anything creatively because every day I’ve got to put some thoughts into words.

There are other things I’ve gained from daily blogging. There have been the occasional “I saw your post, nice to meet you” kind of connections made because of daily blogging. It’s caused me to be more disciplined. When I know I have to write a post before I go to bed, I work to make sure I have the time to do that (usually).

The last thing is perhaps just the perspective. I now know what I can do. That I can write every day. That the same kid who dropped out of “formal schooling” in 5th grade can put out over 200 blog posts in just over half a year. I never have an excuse for being lazy because I can look back on what I’ve done and see there’s always a way to do better.

Where to next

As they say, all good things must come to an end. I have deeply enjoyed blogging every day. Though it was hard in the beginning, I have grown to love it. I’ve started being able to express myself much better on the keyboard. Just two nights ago I was able to burst out my feelings in a way that I’ve never been able to do with writing.

I used to use piano as a way to express that emotion but I’ve become comfortable enough in my writing that I can do it through it.

Perhaps still the largest thing to grow in is my ability to document my work — which is something that goes back even to my initial goal in November of becoming a more proficient writer. I wanted to be able to document my work better. I did an okay job of that while I was in the Praxis Bootcamp but I feel as though I’ve slacked off since getting to my apprenticeship.

How to feel when a streak ends

I am deeply competitive. I hate losing. If I had ended my blogging streak by accident I would have been irate. I want to be someone who will stick to a commitment. I knew if I ever stopped, it had to be planned. I had to make it clear that I was stopping. Which, by the way, if you’re reading this to get to the part where I say I’m not going to be daily blogging anymore, you’re going to be looking for a while. All of these titles were simply put here to make you think I was ending my daily blogging. I’m definitely still going.

Because I’m not ready to finish yet. I think I have a lot of work I can do to make my writing better and I’ve kind of been putting it off. But I’m going to slowly start working on it as I continue to blog.

What to do after the streak ends

This is honestly the main reason I’m not ending the streak now. I have no clue how I would survive without daily blogging. I would feel so weird going to bed without writing a blog post. Sure, it would be nice sometimes, but I couldn’t handle it.

I don’t know when I’m going to stop, but I’m to the point where a year seems like the only place to go. How could I go so far and never make it there?

As always, it’s not a commitment, but I’m going to continue daily blogging until I feel it’s time to stop.

Which just so happens to not be now.