Five years ago, on July 25th 2018, I made my first blog post on this site. Over the course of these five years, my plans, content, and even the site itself, have gone through multiple iterations, but back then I only had one goal in mind. I had always loved writing and so I contemplated starting a blog many times, but always got hung up on the “what.” What could I possibly write posts about each week and never run out of content? As I thought more and more about it, the answer became obvious: World of Warcraft! And so I started aurashot.com not knowing how long I would keep up writing, my excitement over Warcraft and the prospects of running my own website to motivate me. And now, five years later, this place has turned into a comforting routine and I am excited as ever to continue writing about anything nerd-related I find interesting.
Another reason why this small blog means so much to me is because it has helped me to come out of my shell in terms of sharing my writing with “the world.” Even though I’m quite aware that this site probably gets very few visitors, it’s still a public place hosted on the internet. When I started out, the idea of posting my writing in a public place that anyone could theoretically access terrified me. While I’ve always been a writer, I rarely share my work. Like how the saying goes with the artist hating their art, I, too, am overly critical of anything I create. Creating this website was and continues to be a sort of therapy for me, and I think I’ve come a long way since the beginning. Where I used to be nervous about writing a new post, now I’m excited and look forward to future ideas for content far in advance. This site has even inspired me to start multiple other websites (still being worked on!), one of which being dedicated to future short stories.
When I look back at my earlier posts I see how much I have grown and how much I will continue to grow in the future. It’s the same as keeping a journal for several years and reading back earlier entries to see how you might have grown and changed as a person. I’ve often thought of life like a series of chapters in a book that is constantly being written by you, the author of your own life. I can see that with my own life when I look back at things I’ve written in the past, and I can recall what I was going through at the time and what I might have been thinking. It’s important to have stories and to remember that if you don’t like the way your personal novel is going, that only the author has the power to make revisions.
Most of all I would like to thank anyone who has visited my humble blog and taken the time to read any of my ramblings. My goal with all of my writing is to bring joy and a perspective that resonates with others, and if I have done that for you, dear reader, then everything I do has been worthwhile. Here’s to another wonderful five years of talking about video games.
