My first article on Medium: Hello!
Well, this is kind of terrifying. I’ve been signed up to Medium for a couple of weeks now, and after plucking up the courage I’m taking the plunge and actually writing my first article. This is where I get to introduce myself to the Medium masses (or to no one, depending on how this plays out). I’ll talk a little about who I am / where I’m at now, what I will publish articles on, and why I’ve decided to start blogging now. Some of this is going to look very clickbait-y, especially with what I want to write about, but I guess that’s why certain topics are popular — they apply to so many.
- Who am I?
Father of two, husband of one, I turn 40 in August 2024 and this year I lost my mother at the age of 65. There’s a lot in that last sentence and it sums up my motivations for beginning this blog.
2. Why am I starting to blog?
- Two main life events: losing my mother at a relatively early age, and approaching 40. Grief makes you reflect, not just on what you have lost but also on where YOU are at in your life — we’re all heading for the same destination, but how is your journey going? Also 40 is a major milestone — based on lifespans here in the UK I’d say I’m about half way done on the aforementioned journey.
- I recently logged back into to a PC game I play, and the stats really hammered home how much time I’d spent on it that while enjoyable could definitely have been spent more productively on…pretty much anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it but could have been doing so much more
- I’ve toyed with this over the many, many years I’ve been online, held back by the usual: am I interesting enough? Will people care about my opinions? What if no one ever reads it and its a waste of time and…you know the drill. Now though, I really want to challenge myself to see if I can actually do it and keep committed to it.
3. What am I going to right about?
Here comes the spammy bit…
Its always advised to write about your interests, so that even if you aren’t an expert your passion will shine through. Well with turning 40 soon my interests now lie heavily in fitness, finance, current affairs, and mental health so these are the topics I’ll be blogging about — my various journeys into fitness training, passive income attempts, budgeting and future prepping, the rise of AI, and mental health issues affecting fathers. Other articles will naturally be shorter and snappier…
You’ve made it this far? Then thank you for taking the time, I’m looking forward to getting to know you all
If this all takes off then this article might be interesting to those reading later, better ones to learn more about me and to see how my writing has (hopefully) improved. If not, then at least it may stand the test of time and my children can read about me when I’m gone.
There’s no way I’m finishing my first article — an introduction to me no less — on such a downer so I’ll finish with a quote I love and try to live by:
“Never Be Cruel. Never Be Cowardly. Hate Is Always Foolish. Love Is Always Wise. Always Try To Be Nice, But Never Fail To Be Kind.”
The Twelfth Doctor, Doctor Who
