Go Ahead. Grow Ahead.

What I’m feeling as I write this down is simply inexplicable. There are two reasons why:
1. Today, The Soulful Nib completes FOUR years. Yes! Four glorious years of blogging 😃
2. This blog post is the 100th blog post on The Soulful Nib!

The excitement and exhilaration are beyond what I ever imagined. Today, I just want to recount all that this blog has made me in these four years.

16th May 2016. I woke up that day and decided that I am going to start a blog. Just like that. No prior planning. No agenda. Nothing. I created an account on WordPress and named my blog (it sounded so different at that time, to say my blog), “Methodical Musings.” Readers from the very beginning are sure to remember this name. I felt that the name resonated with my writing style. Being a meticulous planner who organised her random thoughts on paper, this name sounded kind of perfect.

And thus began my journey as a blogger. It took me so many days to accept the fact that I wasn’t just Chetana anymore. I was Chetana, the blogger. The very first blog post was quite obviously, about my love for writing. (Please do read till the end for links to some of my personal favourite blog posts!)
Being a person with numerous hobbies and interests, I thought that this craze for writing too will fade away gradually, like some of the other interests I had taken up. To my utter surprise, I did not stop. I could not stop. Writing became my addiction. I found myself typing away furiously on my laptop or phone and making notes of all the possible things I could write about.

My blog became my soulmate. It sounds too cringy, but that’s what I started to see it as. It completed me, made me a better version of myself and stood by me, faithfully. When I started off in 2016, it was this extremely hesitant and frightened girl behind the blog posts. Being introverted, taking this huge step of putting my thoughts out for the whole world to read was intimidating. Yet, I took the leap. Let me say that this was one of the best decisions of my life.

My friends, acquaintances and family started appreciating my skills and prowess in writing out my thoughts in their purest form. People started calling me “blogger” or “Methodical Musings” and I couldn’t stop smiling till my jaws hurt! One year passed and I decided to change the name of the blog to something classier and simpler. And in came the name “The Soulful Nib” and it has stayed ever since.

Every time I published a blog post, I would always wonder whether I would be able to write another one. Whether this would be the end of my obsession with writing. But no such thing happened. Blog posts started churning out one by one. Some days the blog posts would be spontaneous and some took me a few days to finalise.

Despite being the creator of The Soulful Nib, in many ways The Soulful Nib created the person I am today. What I have learnt from all these years of blogging have shaped me in ways I seldom imagined. Some of the lessons I’ve learnt:
1. Consistency is key. It truly is a Herculean task to keep writing something different and engaging regularly.
2. It all doesn’t have to be perfect. This was one thing that used to worry me. Being a perfectionist of sorts, I used to try hard in making my blog posts look simply perfect. But as time passed, I realised what mattered was that I just wrote.
3. Accepting criticism. Not all my blog posts fare well. Some of them have performed below average and I hardly received feedback except for the regular few people. Of course, it would be disheartening. But well, that’s how it is. Criticism is in itself an opportunity to improve and get better at the skill.
4. Observation skills. I’ve become so habituated with this one skill. I keep observing my surroundings, the people, the conversations and incidents. They give me so many insights into what I could learn and share on my blog.
5. Connecting with like-minded people. People would interact with me and have a discussion about what I wrote in a particular blog post. This helped me in building new relations, and rekindling old relations too!

Over the years, there have been multiple changes on the blog. The name changed, the logo changed (thrice). Some other additions happened too.
1. The Instagram Page
2. Poetry Page on the blog (a collection of all the poems that have been published on the blog till date)
3. Notes from The Soulful Nib: Short and Simple Narratives About Everyday Experiences, Thoughts, and Feelings
4. Book Reviews (a very recent addition, with links to all the book reviews posted on the Instagram page).

When I first started, the images to go along with the blog posts were random ones taken from a basic Google search. Somewhere in between, I stumbled across Canva and started designing my own images to go along. It is such a relaxing and fun activity to do! Contrary to what a lot of people think, I do not make any money out of this blog. I write here because I like to write and share my thoughts. Though there are no monetary gains out of this, the satisfaction and joy weigh far more than money! In the end, it is all about growing in tiny ways and improving.

Blogging has been challenging. But you know what? It is so totally worth it. When I look back to the person I was four years and see myself today, I can see me slowly inching towards being truer to myself and loving who I am. Growing and going ahead, yesterday, today and tomorrow. 🙂

As promised, here are some of my personal favourite posts:
1. Writing: My Passion (the first blog post!)
2. An Excerpt from The Diary of Every Girl/Woman (one of the boldest posts I’ve ever written)
3. An Ode To The Most Underrated Job In The World (one of the most viewed posts too. One of my favourite writers, Preeti Shenoy even tweeted about this blog post a year ago!)
4. #SheIsSpecial
5. Life Lessons From Dear Zindagi
6. Teri Laadki Main
7. Unwind. Relax. Reset. (Let me be honest here. I love this post a wee bit more than the rest.)
8. Food For The Soul (one of my favourite short blog posts)
9. Try. Fail. Learn.
10. Creativity Is Intelligence Having Fun!
11. It’s Okay.

A special thank you note to my parents and my brother for being supportive and always encouraging me to pursue my passion. An extra thank you to my brother for being my editor and providing the most constructive criticism. Thank you, my dear readers, for reading and giving you valuable feedback. They truly mean the world to me!

And that’s a wrap!

Until next time, stay blessed!

Image created via Canva