Writing the Blog

The first anniversary of my blog will be in about a month from now. Given that, I thought I’d look back and talk about why I chose to write this blog.

If you’ve ever taken a look at my “about” page, you would see that it mostly talks about my autism. This is not something I ended up talking a lot about on my blog. Although I did start this blog as a way to inform people about what an autistic perspective would look like, I ended up talking about all kinds of things. The idea of an “autistic perspective” implies that there is something that unites people with autism besides being part of a loose collection of people with similar disorders, but I don’t think that’s the case. More than that, I always felt that there wasn’t much to the “autistic perspective.” I didn’t see the world too differently from the average person. I just had some unique obstacles in my way.

Despite this, I came to realize throughout writing in this blog was that there were people who found stuff about my life interesting. They got something from me talking about the people I love and the things I cared about. That was heartening. And as I got better at it, I became more open about my feelings. And then, before I knew it, this blog became an important part of my life.

This blog quickly became a challenge to myself – since I couldn’t find any work, I needed something that would prevent me from becoming lazy and complacent. This blog was my way forward. Through working on it, my week had a structure to it. I would crank out one post per week every Thursday. I couldn’t do whatever I wanted with impunity. Even normal weeks had a higher purpose than just aimless Internet-surfing. Through this blog, I get to experience a taste of what it’s like to be a major writer. I practice writing for deadlines, choosing the right words for each topic, and so on. It’s certainly more challenging than most of the school projects I remember having to do, but at the same time, I feel up for the challenge.

Adding to this challenge is the sense that I’m participating in something larger than myself when I go and share my ideas. I get a bunch of comments on this blog and reading them all warms my heart. Each one encourages me to keep trying. Among them are complements, questions, and critiques, and each encourages me differently. The compliments fill me with the confidence to continue doing what I’m doing. The questions show that there are people out there who are interested in what I know and want more of it. And each critique dares me to “do better,” in the words of one commenter on this blog.

By working on this blog, I grow as a person. I learn a bit more about what responsibility is and what it entails. Though I may not be perfect, I like to think that by writing these things, bit by bit, I will gain the wisdom to succeed. That’s why I will continue writing on this blog as long as I can. My blog and its audience are that important to me. Thank you, all of you.