Why I Blog

Hello readers!

So I'll tell you up front, this won't be that serious of a post. (I do have some more real post ideas in the works, so you'll be seeing those soon!) It's really just me letting you know what's going on with TSM at the moment, but there's a part for you all to get involved, so really, it's worth the read.

I started this blog a little over a year ago, and at the time it was just something to do for fun and for a bit more writing practice, honestly. As you can probably tell by the fact that I only wrote 32 posts all year, I didn't take it that seriously.

However, lately I've thought a little bit more about the possibility of blogging becoming more than a hobby, and it's made me think a bit more about why I blog and what I want to say.

Let me be the first to tell you, there is a plethora of information out on the web about how to start a blog, what sort of posts to write, how your blog should look, how to make money blogging, etc etc etc. I've read a lot of those articles. And I've ignored most of them.

Yes, maybe doing some of those things would make me more popular or get me more subscribers. But then what would set me apart from every other blogger in the world that read those posts and did what they said? What's left to make me original or interesting?

Honestly, I don't like being told what I can and can't do when it comes to things like this. For example, one big tip is to find your niche or topic, and focus on that. I could call myself a book blogger and make that my focus. But is that the only thing I care about? No.

As I think I've mentioned before, I don't like being put in a box. I don't like being labelled. So while the internet tells me to pick one topic, what do I want to do? I want to branch out and write about more. Of course, I'll still write about books. I love books. But I want to write about music, beauty, lifestyle, art, etc etc etc. I want to have variety. That said, I don't want to write about these things because they might get me more page views. I want to write about them because I enjoy them.

So why do I blog? I want to write. I want to combine writing (which I love) and all the other things I love. I want to write about things that are important to me and things that are important in the world. I want to have a voice and I want to have a message. Of course, a message doesn't matter much if no one listens.

And that's where you all come in. You're the ones listening, after all. I have a few post ideas that actually involve hearing from you. I'm planning to start a few Q&A style posts, and so, obviously, I need questions! I'm certainly not an expert, but I'm planning to write about beauty/style, books, and music, so send in your questions on those topics! You can comment below, or contact me using the links in the side bar.

And as a bonus, it's in the works to do sort of a collab/guest post type thing with a Julliard flutist, so if you have any questions for her about music, Julliard, or anything like that, send those in as well!

The Lie Society Tells Us: Self Portraits

At my school, if you walk down the fine arts hallway, you might hear flutes and trumpets and saxophones coming from the band room. You might hear voices coming from the choir room. You might hear lines being rehearsed in the drama room or auditorium. You might smell paint or sawdust from the tech theatre department. But you'll definitely see the line of portraits hanging on the cinder block walls.

About the first half of the drawings are pencil and charcoal self portraits of the students, splattered with colorful paint. The second half are colored pencil sketches on colored paper.

To put it simply, the colored pencil drawings are incredible. They're fantastically realistic, and the colors are bright and unexpected, yet somehow exactly the right shade to create the image you expect to see.

Don't get me wrong, the self portraits are wonderful too, and there is obviously a lot of talent, focus, and hard work that went into creating them. But as a whole, the self portraits are not as realistic as the colored pencil drawings. Upon closer inspection, some of them appear a bit distorted, sort of like looking in a warped carnival mirror.

If you take the time to think about the drawings as you walk down the hallway, you might start to wonder why the drawings the students did of other people look so realistic, and why oftentimes the drawings they did of themselves are a bit out of proportion. And I think it goes back to another one of the lies society tells us.

The self portraits are distorted because that is how we, as people, tend to see ourselves.

We do not see ourselves as we truly are. We cannot see ourselves accurately. We have spent too much time criticizing our own appearances based on a set of "standards" that the media gives us. We have started to believe things about ourselves that just aren't true.

But with other people, we don't seem to do this. I think, a lot of times, we don't hold pick apart other people's appearances like we do our own. So often, we know not to be mean to others, but we never think about not being mean to ourselves.What you may see in yourself isn't necessarily what others see.

And I think that's worth remembering, next time you feel self conscious. Our internalized self portrait is not what others are really seeing.