You don't need a grand life to blog

22 Jun, 2025

When I started blogging, writing was a struggle (though it was a pursuit I loved) - more specifically, finding something to write about. I would ceaselessly scroll on social media and my curated blog rotation, sifting through fragments of sentences, words, and expressions that ignited the faintest flicker of inspiration.

Looking back, I realized I was chasing a grandiose, life-changing epiphany to blog about, a monumental profundity that would change the world. I believed I needed a remarkable life to justify writing about it, to earn the right to speak. Most of my writer's block, I now see, was rooted from that pressure to say something extraordinary.

I began collecting words from the world around me - random snippets from conversations, excerpts from books and songs, a fleeting memory - which I immediately jot on a commonplace for later revisiting. To me, that was the beauty of it - how I start with something as peripheral as a grounded, personal glimpse, and it unfolds, blooming into blogpost that someone can read.

There was something moving about transforming the mundane into meaning, about offering a perspective that felt ordinary, only to realize it carries more weight to you than you expected. These small snippets I captured from my life meant something to me, and that was enough to make me want to share. Over time, I wrote with less resistance and more rhythm. I started showing up, even in days I felt like I had nothing to say. In turn, I became more attentive to my own life. The details I once overlooked became worth writing about.

You don't need a grand life to write. You need presence. Attention. An utter willingness to discern the details of your own life: questions you ask yourself in the quiet moments, conversations that make you ponder, complex feelings you want to untangle. Not everything I post is groundbreaking, but I know it’s honest. That has become enough for me.