#600 13 Years of Blogging!

 

13 Years of Blogging!

And the journey continues

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

My blog has completed its 13th year of existence, and I am so happy about it.

When I started writing and publishing on this blog, I had never imagined that it would continue for so long!

I just took the first step 13 years ago, during my undergraduate years, and the steps of the ladder kept unveiling one after the other as I continued my journey of writing.

I can’t believe my blog is as old as someone who was born in 2013 and would be 13 years old now.

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Photo by Aliena Roos on Unsplash

My life has been evolving ever since. Blogging was a way of documenting the experiences of my life. I believed that it would give me a chance to look into the circumstances of life more deeply and reflect on the lessons learned from it.

Even though I have not been so regular on my blog lately, I keep writing offline and online on other platforms like a ritual, because writing is like breathing to me.

At the end of the day, when my head feels a bit heavy or uncertainties intimidate me, I find my solace in writing. It’s as if an old dear friend of mine is fondly listening to me.

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Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

A lot has happened over these 13 years, from completing graduation, Master’s, living and working in different cities, forming new connections, getting married, to living an immigrant life in different countries. 

Life showed its different shades while I tried to understand its unsaid rules.

Frequent relocations made me believe that the entire world is my home, and I should try to bloom wherever I am planted.

Amidst all the chaos and uncertainties, one thing remained constant over the years, that’s my inclination towards writing. 

I write a blog anniversary post every year to reflect on my writing journey and life. I find it an honest way to honour the silent companion that has been sticking to me for years through my thick and thin, my dear blog.

My blog is as dear to me as my diary, and my fondness for it has only grown over the years. It’s a public version of my diary, with certain constraints that I manage.

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Through my blog, I explored different forms of writing, from poetry, essays, short stories, to personal narratives. With each form of writing, I was trying to make myself more comfortable with the unexplored.

I participated in different writing competitions and won some prizes, which made me believe that my words resonated with the jury.

My inspiration for writing doesn’t always come from writing challenges; it comes from observing my life minutely on an everyday basis. That’s because every day carries with it a unique lesson that should not be missed.

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Photo by Peter Mammitzsch on Unsplash

I’ve been more frequent on Medium than here because I felt that my writing needed readership, and I enjoyed interacting with fellow writers and building connections.

I realised that I neither have enough time nor energy to advertise my blogs on different blogging platforms as I used to do earlier. So, I switched to a more interactive platform.

I thank all my readers who read my scribbles in the form of articles, stories, and poetry, and share their comments.

I have some writing goals I am not actively pursuing, but I visualize finishing them soon.

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Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash

I will write anyway,
Whether I’m happy or sad,
Living in my own country,
Or leading an immigrant life.

 

I will write anyway,
When the days seemed very heavy,
Pushing me to an abyss or
As smooth as a slice of butter.

 

I will write anyway,
When the sun shines brightly,
Scorching heat parching my soul or
Surviving in minus degrees!

 

I will write anyway,
While looking through the window,
Observing the nature and
Admiring the elements of it.

 

I will write anyway,
Observing my surrounding
For the characters that form
Muses of my stories or poetry.

 

I will write anyway,
While welcoming members into
My family or bidding goodbye
To the parting ones.

 

I will write anyway,
For cherishing the memories
Of bygone days, while
Feeling grateful for them.

 

I will write anyway,
Knowing the fact that
Growing old is inevitable and
The ultimate truth to accept.

 

I will write anyway,
Even when no one is reading it
For all I know, it’s a 
Concoction for my soul.

 

I will write anyway,
For I’ve got a life to live,
Just one life and a thousand dreams
To accomplish in a lifetime.

©All Rights Reserved!
Swati Sarangi
28.03.2026
You can support my work through Buy me a Coffee.

 

#553 12 years of blogging and sharing my stories

 12 years of blogging and sharing my stories

Source : Generated by the author using GROK 

The month of March holds a lot of significance in my life. As the title suggests, this is the day I started publishing my articles/poems 12 years ago, and I am still doing the same. I also celebrated my marriage anniversary at the beginning of this month. Something unfortunate happened a week after our anniversary, and it will be etched in my heart forever.

 

I always looked forward to this day every year and would schedule a post in advance, but all these things didn’t seem to excite me this year. I’m grieving from personal loss and recovering from it; both physically and emotionally. Life has a different way of surprising us, and not all surprises are always pleasant, and we can do nothing about it making you wonder how life can be so cruel when you’ve always tried to do what’s right.

 

12 years is a long time; that’s more than twice my years of marriage. A lot happened in those 12 years; mostly good events but also some unexpectedly unfortunate events too and in all these years, I realized how unpredictable results in life could be! There’s a higher power that controls the outcome; reminding us to be more grateful when things go all right because those things could’ve gone wrong too.

 

This blog always gave me a reason to celebrate each day. It became my online diary; something that’s there to treasure my written words without any judgment. I don’t care about readership now. This blog has always been so special to me as it never made me worry about the presence of a special someone to make me feel special. Writing my heart out without the feeling of being judged is the best feeling that I can ever experience.

 

As I write this post, I am writing with a sense of stoicism, I am neither trying to reflect too much on years of my literary journey, life, or anything particular nor forcing myself too much to feel those emotions that I used to have every year when I wrote bloganniversary post. This time, it’s different and it need not have to be the same every year. I must accept it.

 

I don’t know what inspiration I can offer to my readers through this post, at this moment, but I can guarantee you to get inspired by our previous posts which we wrote with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and optimism. Even I will try to get back to those posts to motivate myself to get back to my old form and make this process of healing a little bit easier.

 All Rights Reserved!

© Swati Sarangi
30.03.2025

You can support my work through Buy me a Coffee.

P.S.: This was the first post that I published on this day, exactly 12 years ago.

#496 11years & Counting

 11 Years and Counting

Source : Canva Design

It’s a day of celebration as our blog turns 11 years old [ sorry for not being able to post it yesterday as it was on 30^th Mar 2013, when I started publishing my write-ups on this blog]. A lot has changed over these years, from acquiring my first university degree to moving and living in different countries, from losing family members to creating memories of acquaintance in foreign lands, Life has its peculiar ways of unfolding mysteries that it has been holding onto for ages. I’ve entered another decade of my life unsure about what it stores for me, but I must admit that I’ve no regret for the chances that I took in the past, even though they didn’t turn out to be the way I wanted them to. So, I am excited to go through other experiences of life, whatever it has to offer, I am open to receiving it as blessings.

With increased responsibilities of life and career, writing, for me, sometimes seems to have taken a backseat. I am amazed to find my write-ups from the past when I scroll through them. I wonder about those ideas that I poured into my writing that came purely from observing my surroundings. As a student, I tried to keep myself productive and away from all sorts of distractions. Writing helped me beat the boredom and provided me with the freedom to traverse anywhere in my imaginary realm to bring those events to this mortal world. It was the time when smartphones weren’t part of our lives, let alone AI technology. With the emergence of AI technology and the advent of writing tools like ChatGPT, everyone, who’s a user of such writing or editing tools, is a writer. What a human mind can achieve, technology can never achieve. After all, AI is a product of the human mind, maybe its greatest invention.

Creation of any form requires an isolated environment and peace of mind. Achieving an isolated environment not only implies omitting human interference from the physical environment but also removing all sorts of distractions. What it took me a few minutes to compose a poem, and now it takes me hours and hours to select a topic to write on.  Yes, I am distracted by technology like smartphone, social media, laptop, iPad, and easy dopamine rises like watching reels etc. and I am trying to control such distractions to be more productive. Meditation has helped me conquer the chain of unrelated/irrelevant thoughts, so I just have to work on my level of distraction or procrastination.

Blogging is a way to reflect on my day-to-day life to not miss its learnings. Life provides learning opportunities every day and its lessons are hidden intricately between different events. I am grateful to all readers for sparing their time to go through our writeups and provide valuable feedback. I will keep them coming.

Source: Google Image

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

30.03.2024

 

#450 Cheers to a decade of blogging

 Cheers to a decade of blogging

I am delighted to share this news with all the readers over here that our blog has completed its 10 years of existence. It’s really a proud moment for us. We never thought that we would consistently put our efforts into letting this blog grow and mature in its own way. It feels really nostalgic how this blog started as a way to express our thoughts and emotions in the form of writing. This blog is extremely special for us because it has always provided us space to pour down and align our thoughts with words in a better way. Writing has always been a boon for us whenever we feel elevated or low. So, this post is all about our relationship with this blog. I am sharing some of the statistics of the blog. 

I just pray that our journey of blogging never stops. I am wishing everyone a very happy Ram Navami.

Sweta Sarangi

30-3-2023

#433 Bloganniversary : Celebrating 9 years of its existence

Bloganniversary ; celebrating 9 years of its existence

The day has come to celebrate this special day; that special day is the anniversary of this blog. I’m so glad to share that my blog turns 9 years today and I can’t be happier. When I started publishing my articles in my personal blog 9 years ago, I had never imagined that it would be instrumental in inculcating a life-long habit of writing in me. This blog proved to be a faithful friend of mine whose friendship developed during the sophomore year of my college life. It feels unbelievable for me to realize that this blog still continues to reflect my innermost thoughts and ideologies while I travel through different frames of time and space.

Source : Google Images

 

This blog documents the journey of my life by witnessing various stages of my evolution. In 9 years of its existence, it has been successful enough to garner 6-digit-views of people across the world. It has stuck to me during adverse situations and provided me immense support. It’s strange to believe that this inanimate thing has occupied the most important part of my life. It has witnessed me completing my graduation, post-graduation, working in the corporate world, exploring different places and then countries, entering into married life, and striking off many things from my bucket list. When people came and went in my life, it stayed constant. During college days, when many relationships formed and broke off, I feel proud to have invested my time and energy in this relationship which still continues to be with me.

 

Source: Google Images

This month is important for me not just for the anniversary of my blog but also celebrates the second anniversary of my marriage. Unlike this blog, I entered into the relatively early stage relationship for a life-long partnership which evolved through the days of struggle of lockdown and following the passion of life amidst all uncertainties. It was then I learned that every decision taken during the phase of uncertainty provides its own rewards but only those who get the privilege to enjoy these rewards have the courage to face these uncertainties. We can never enjoy a movie when we know its climax beforehand and the same concept applies to life as well.

 

During the last 9 years, I had never pledged to write only in my blog. I grabbed the opportunity to write on different platforms and experimented with different forms of writing such as long and short forms. Not posting in my blog ever implied that I was not writing, in fact, I was always writing, sometimes in my diary, other times as comments for my fellow writers. Whenever I got any idea, I would right away draft it on my mobile. Recently, I have been documenting my journey as a software developer in my technical blog – coding concoction in Hashnode. I never shy away from complementing fellow writers there from whom I learned a lot.

 

Source: Google Images

I neither have any agenda nor any plan to write in this blog, I will keep writing whenever or wherever I can or when I am completely overtaken by the urge of writing. Writing, for me, is the ultimate form of expression and I will continue to do it as long as I am alive.

 

I will write whenever I can

Even under the scorching heat

Holding a pen with my hand tanned

Or trying to write my emotions

With my frozen hands

I will write about the beauty around

During spring in a foreign land

Like leaves of autumn, I will wait

 For thoughts or ideas to be reborn

 

I will write whenever I am happy

Singing and dancing merrily

To appreciate the life

I will also write when I am sad

Not willing to share my grief

With the world around

 

I will write whenever or

Wherever I can

To help my words to reach

Those unvisited clans.

 

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

27.03.2022