defragment.me

The dilemmas faced starting this blog

One of the major reasons why I took so long to get this blog up, even though I’ve felt the need to for a long time, was because of the many dilemmas faced during the idea conception stage, and the decision making process took quite a bit of time.

Niche or not

The subjects that I had planned to write were pretty niche and specific, the problem lies with the range of topics. I wanted to write about the lessons I’ve learned while freelancing, design ideas, my spiritual awakening and growth, my interest in astrology, the important epiphanies I had in my life.

People who want to read about the practical side of my writing – the freelancing experiences – may not appreciate my thoughts on spirituality, and vice versa. Ultimately I decided to go for the all-in-one route, because practically I knew it would be difficult for me to maintain separate blogs, but more importantly, I wanted to paint the whole, entire picture of what I’ve gone through.

It is difficult for me to write about how I overcame my struggles without involving my spiritual awakening, or how I applied spiritual concepts to cope with my difficulties while freelancing. They’re intricately related, and they wouldn’t be unique experiences if they are purposely kept separate.

The potential for religious backlash

To write about my take on spirituality, I was worried that there will be people who have strong religious beliefs getting upset about the spiritual views I express. The simple statement that I believe in God but not in any particular organized religion might be enough to cause outrage. Or that I believe in karma and reincarnation. However, I weighed the pros and cons, eventually I decided that as long as I set my intentions to be positive, and hope that my readers keep an open mind and respect my views, everything will turn out fine.

Being true, the exposure & my business

I’m a professional designer offering my services to a wide-variety of clientele, both locally and internationally. To truly share my past experiences equates to me having to be true and honest, even if it means writing about the pain, or bits of my past that I probably shouldn’t talk about openly. I am not sure how my exisiting or potential clients will feel if they happen to read about my depressive past or my spiritual views.

Yet I have chosen the uncomfortable route, because I know that it may benefit many others by sharing my experiences openly. That alone should be more important than worrying about how some people would react. I am simply being who I am, and I guess I trust my clients to be open-minded enough, if not, then I guess there’s nothing much I can do. One thing I’ve learned is that there’s bound to be some people unhappy with what you do no matter what, and you cannot spend your entire life pleasing everyone.

Inspired by

I would like to give thanks to two very courageous and strong women among many others – Jaime Mintun & Patricia Singleton – whose efforts to write openly about their past painful experiences in an effort to share and heal with others, gave me the inspiration and strength to share mine. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but never felt whether it was right, or rather, I was not sure if I had the guts, and having the opportunity to read these two blogs gave me the sign I was waiting for. Reading their blogs made me feel that the strength needed to be open about myself, was nothing compared to the courage they have shown.

Leave some thoughts?