When I started this blog, the initial question I asked myself as well as asked by others was: why? To be honest, I didn’t quite know. I thought I had a story to share, maybe some insights, and quite a bit of experience I’d say for my age. I wasn’t much of a writer though. And as you can see, with posts quite a bit spaced a part, I think that’s pretty evident. But that doesn’t mean every once in awhile I don’t mind dropping a line on something happening or my thoughts on an event, thing… whatever. And so that is what this blog, my blog, is all about: kind of a bit of everything.
Yes, I do work in an exciting space (one that is home to blogging) and that is social media but since I spend most of my time discussing it I haven’t felt quite like talking about it after-hours. Well, at least writing about it! Besides, there’s enough writing on it anyways. Maybe someday though as I get more entrenched in this world and feel more comfortable writing about applicable uses of it (that is again, what I pretty much do for work) I’ll change that. I didn’t want to make that the focus though on the offset. I think I need to build a bit more cred before I label myself an expert on a blog unlike so many who get a job with a title, start blogging and are “experts”. I’m surrounded by real experts and most don’t blog that actively and if they are, it’s actually not necessarily about social media. So, though I may drop a line about it here and then it still is not to be the focus.
Luckily, I do have a bunch of cool friends doing cool things or sharing cool things and I love to share that with others and that certainly has been a big part of my blogging. Sharing is what I believe is at the heart of social media anyways and I guess if there is a theme you’d have to pick it would be that. Friends are the best source of inspiration anyways, right!? Alright, maybe second best… I can think of one more that is better.
The reason I’m talking about this now is because of the unique reception I’ve received when I decided to share a personal story about myself. It wasn’t entirely negative and even what could have been construed as negative was probably more in jest. It did get me thinking about why I use social tools like blogging and twitter and facebook. I’ve used it as a platform for advice before but this time being personal it was a bit different. Again, some positive. I got a lot of good feedback from friends but I could sense that it raised some eyebrows (“Why is this guy talking about this? He usually talks about… other stuff”). So, I am going to explain myself. I’ve already hinted that I’m not afraid of advice from these tools, I do it all the time. The real reason I decided to use this platform around my personal story was its reach. I wanted to explain myself. Many around could sense I wasn’t the “regular” Neil. And I wasn’t. I decided to share my story on why. I left quite a bit out due to wanting to leave out specific people and such, but the jist was there. And guess what? It worked.
This blog is about anything and everything around/about me. Here I will talk about cool stuff going on around me and with me and maybe every so often some not so much cool stuff. Again, this is a place for me to share and sometimes that comes in the form of venting. Therefore, thank you guys for all the feedback in the past and even recent. Thanks for understanding where I’m at, especially the many of you who reached out to me. We all have similar stories anyways, right? Each one unique though but perspective still helps.
By the way, if you want an update on the personal stuff… it’s over. Your boy got shot down and shot down hard. It sucks. It hurt a hell of a lot more than I ever thought it would. I can take that though. I’m on the receiving end of something I’ve done many a times to others. But it was a sweet wakeup call! It reminded me on where I am at now. Each year seems to be different on how I approach and think of things and for the start of 2009 I learned quickly that I am in a different place. We’ll see where it takes me now. I’ll probably keep you posted right here! Let’s hope to some good things.
