It has been a while since I have tried blogging. I remember creating my first blog in WordPress somewhere back in 2008 or 2009 and it was a blog dedicated to my pet gerbil. I got help and mentoring from my grandmother who at the time was a huge dog aficionado and blogger. She helped me with everything - the camera settings, transferring photos to the PC, the website layouts and figuring out the blog entries. I have one printed photo of the said gerbil in a photo album at my mother's house, a photo that I took for the website. When it comes to the contents of my blog, that's pretty much all I can remember. On the other hand, I do remember that the habit of blogging took my life as a pet owner to another level. Did I have a lot of followers or interactions with fellow gerbil enthusiasts? Definitely not. The only follower was probably my grandmother. However, taking my hobby online made things feel more exciting and professional.

Years passed, I became a teenager and my interests started to change rapidly. Different websites, online communities and online forums became the main spaces for me to connect with other like-minded people. I tried blogging multiple times and struggled. Something had changed. Back in the gerbil blog days my only proper influence was my grandmother's blog. Now I was navigating in a much bigger (digital) world with different worldviews, ideas and aesthetics. And, of course, growing up that's just normal. Persistent blogging, however, compared to posting and updating my profile without further thought in online communities such as gosupermodel.com, felt just overwhelming.

And just like that, somewhere in the search of my own thing I forgot about blogging. To be completely honest with you, I forgot about lots of other things too and at one point almost felt like I lost myself. While blogging has always fascinated me, there is something intimidating to me in sharing my own thoughts and ideas. The reason for creating my own website and a dedicated blog section in it is a combination of many factors. One of them is the idea and encouragement from my father. Long story short, I figured it is a way of challenging myself to be more present in my own life, to try to feel more joy in being me and, most importantly, to create despite the possibility of failing.

In my studies I have been especially interested in internet's reader and book communities. While doing my research, I was told that blogging is pretty much a dead thing, a weird echo from the past in today's context. Does it have to be so? As long as there are blogs and people talk about blogging there is also a chance of revival. So finally, this is also my take on the web revival. It's not necessarily about nostalgia but rather using the internet mindfully. Now that I'm practicing a new mindset to creating, the fear is slowly transforming into excitement. I'm actually looking forward to my journey on this website and I hope you enjoy your time here too!