Why start a blog in 2019?

I've been blogging on and off since the days of MySpace. I've blogged on Deviant Art too. My Facebook account is a kind of blog, and I'll occasionally post more anonymously on Reddit too. I've been expressing my thoughts, views and opinions on the internet for a long time. Even before that, I would do freewrites in my High School English and Creative Writing classes and share them with the class. Of course, expressing myself has not always made me friends. On Facebook, for example, I'm pretty much walking on eggshells any time I post anything there. I never know which distant relative with extremist views I'm going to end up having jump down my throat. Maybe the same thing will happen here, but I'm thinking it's slightly less likely.

Blogging seems like such an early 2000's thing to do now. Most people stick to Facebook or Twitter, or vlog on YouTube. But even if only 5 people end up reading and following my blog, at least someone will read what I have to say. I have plenty of old essays just sitting on my hard drive, why not share them? There's endless topics I could write about. Armenian history, the latest book I've read, the latest movie or anime I've watched, my latest thrift store haul. Anything, really.

I think what's really motivated me to start a blog though, is that I've decided I want to take charge of my life. I spent close to 25 years in school from Kindergarten to Graduate School, and got an MFA in Creative Writing. Then I did a six month internship teaching English in Armenia. I was fooled into thinking my degree would get me anywhere. All it got me was a mountain of debt. I've basically been in and out of call centers ever since. No one wants to hire someone with education but no work experience. So, I ended up trapped under the boot of corporate America, in dead end jobs, being yelled at over the phone by rich people while having every second of my shift meticulously calculated so that I can be punished for taking more than 6 minutes in the bathroom. I can't take it anymore. I am a writer. I want to write. I don't want to waste my limited time on this planet as a robotic wage slave. I'm fed up. So my wife and I are trying to go into business for ourselves, selling candles at farmers markets and art festivals. And I'm going to work toward publishing my novels and, once I can afford an art tablet, start a webcomic. Maybe I can have a Patreon account somewhere down the line. And once my writing career finally, at long last, takes off, I should have a blog that I can direct people to, with my writings. That's why I'm starting this blog. I've started things and abandoned them before, but not this time. I want to keep this blog going.

So, if anyone's reading this, thank you and I hope you stay around, and enjoy the ride. I don't plan on sticking to any single topic here, I suppose the only overarching theme with this blog is that this is a view of the world from my perspective. For as much as that's worth. I'll basically just share my blog posts around in appropriate places, like Facebook groups and maybe subreddits, and hopefully build some kind of a following, but I'm guessing the following will finally happen once I get my books and webcomic out. Wish me luck please, and thanks again for reading. There's more to come.