As you can tell, I've started writing a blog.
Why? Well, can I start by saying that I don't like that question? Well, not specifically 'why' - I have plenty of time for 'why is this so?' or 'why does this happen?' but it's 'why did you do that?' which I don't like. When someone asks me 'why did you do that?' I immediately go on the defensive, I feel they have made a judgement that my decision was not the one that they would have made, that it was the wrong decision, and that I'm obligated to explain the reasoning behind my decision-making process, which isn't something I ever really want to do.
Well, in this case I can provide an answer or three to the question 'why are you writing a blog?' Which, incidentally, is going to be asked by everyone who knows how boring and mundane I am, and will of course be shortly followed up by 'why the hell would anyone read that?' Here are my answers:
a) Because everyone needs to read about my most embarrassing stories and my unpopular opinions.
b) Between working full-time, reading, writing, spending time with my wife and beautiful greyhounds and my mobile phone addiction, I basically have zero time.
c) I have survived several encounters which could well have killed me. Was my life spared so I could go on and achieve great things? Or have I been cursed to live forever? Or is that just part of growing up in Australia? Find out here.
d) And well, everyone likes to watch a car crash, right? Whatever hopes and dreams I have are bound to be lost, my life will be turned upside down and it will all end in tears, right in front of your eyes.
I guess the real reasons behind a lot of our actions stay hidden in our subconscious and are dominated by our needs for survival, of peer/social acceptance. In 2017 I challenged myself to read 52 books, which is something I never genuinely believed I could do. And yet, I did. I read one book for each of the 52 categories of the 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenge, and also wrote the first draft of my 90,000 word novel (currently titled 'Emma and the Madhouse Kids') and I also competed in NaNoWriMo for the first time, writing over 50,000 words for a Sci-Fi novel (currently titled 'The Rings of the Earth'). And I'd not written anything aside from essays since high school. So, in short, I achieved way more last year than I ever thought possible. I surprised myself. And, as Kevin Spacey's character from American Beauty said, "it's a great thing when you realise you still have the ability to surprise yourself." Incidentally, I used to love that movie, now I don't know how I feel about it any more. I'm someone who pretty much never sees anything through, or finish projects that I start, but after last year, I'm thinking maybe I can do this, so I am challenging myself to try harder, push myself further, and who knows what might happen.
Well, answer d from above, most likely.
