So, this is probably my first post on this blog (I didn’t plan for it to be some cheesy New Year optimism post, but I didn’t plan for most of the shit that happened in 2016, so why break habit?). I am writing this on the evening of January 1st, I have mock exams starting in two days and this post in itself is a way to put off my German revision, but I figured we all deserve a little time to relax, wind-down and look back on 2016 whilst prepping for the coming year. And so as part of that, I have decided to finally work on this blog and the many, many draft posts which are saved in the background. I guess it’s no surprise that the ‘big reveal’ of this post was that I am going to begin writing on this blog, you probably already guessed considering this is a post…that I am writing…on this blog, but before I explain what this blog is or who I am, I thought I should explain the events leading up to this moment.
Everything in this world starts as an idea, and the idea for this blog started when I finished watching season 4 of ‘Orange is the New Black’ and had so many thoughts and emotions about the season as whole, and the wide variety of themes it covered, that I just had to get it all out. I ended up sitting in front of my laptop’s webcam, my hair a mess and definitely not looking at my best, voicing all my thoughts and coming up with so many questions not just about the show, but also about society as a whole. I suddenly realised after 20 minutes of recording that I wanted to know the opinions of others rather than just explain my own, I wanted to know how they felt on a subject and what they thought of my view. A simple webcam couldn’t offer it’s advice or perspective, and I was (and still am) nowhere near confident enough to upload the video to anywhere on the internet. So a blog seemed the best solution. I would write all my thoughts down in posts and people could comment and create discussion. I could finally express to people all of these opinions in an easy and open way in a safe and comfortable environment.
However, shortly after creating the blog (deciding on the URL, writing out many drafts and plans for future posts, and thinking about how I could get an audience to the blog), I started school again. Now that sentence may have just put you off my blog entirely, but I am turning 18 this year so I’m not incredibly young don’t worry, and if that still doesn’t fill you with confidence then I will simply link you to this ted talk which explains why you shouldn’t suddenly lose faith in this blog just because you now know my age (I may make a blog post about this very issue in the future). But anyway, due to the large workload and sudden transition of me beginning my A-level studies, school became a priority in my life, along with many other things, and so posting that first blog post that I planned didn’t really happen. I had homework to do, friends to catch up with, extracurriculars to maintain and now mocks to revise for (as I mentioned earlier). Which brings me to now.
New Years is always a reflective time for many, looking back at the past year and being excited and hopeful for the future, realising how much you can accomplish and planning to achieve so many wonderful things. So during my personal reflection I did some of the things that make me think: I listened to music, but not just any music, I listened to the songs where you can hear the artist’s passion so much that it transfers to you, I listened to spoken word and watched some of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever come across, and then during one of those videos I thought, “Why am I wasting my time watching this anymore, I’m inspired, time to do something.”. My ‘something’ involves many different actions and resolutions, which I will probably discuss in the next blog post, but one of my somethings is to start this blog. I see this as an empty canvas, and I really cannot wait to fill it with the mess that is me and my thoughts. Although this may be a character flaw, emotions affect me greatly, those corny inspirational YouTube videos get me every time, and now I am getting far too emotional for a simple new years blog post, so I’ll try to rein it in again.
So now you know about what has made me type all these words and hit publish. I feel like I should provide a small introduction. Although there is (or at least should be) a small ‘about’ page somewhere on here, here’s some of the basic facts you’ll need to know before we get started with this:
- My name is Sophie. I know that’s usually the first thing you say to people when you first meet them and I’ve left it very late, but now you know.
- I am a mixed race, gay, 17 year-old girl from England.
- I am also a guitar player, a music lover, an auntie and many other things that you will probably learn about as I maintain this page.
- I love watching TV shows and films, and would love to share my opinions on those things as well as other topics which take my interest.
- This blog’s purpose is for me to have a place where I can expel the thoughts from my brain to another place, I would also love for this blog to cause discussion and open up dialogues on important issues, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and overestimate my own popularity.
So after roughly 1000 words, I think I’m ready. I think I’m going to publish this post and begin maintaining and uploading to this site. I’m going to leave this post in my drafts overnight though, so that I can re-read this in the morning and make sure my tired brain hasn’t said anything too stupid, but it will not stay in my drafts as long as some of the other posts on here have.
Happy new year to you all, whether you’re still in the same one as me right now or if you’re looking back on this with lots more knowledge on how this year will go (or has gone for you) from the future. I hope you press publish on the things you want to achieve.
See you soon,
Sophie xoxo
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