When I started this blog, I posted whatever I wanted. I did not have a focus and jumped between motivational posts, movie/TV reviews, and film festival coverage. Then, I moved into travel blogging, discussing anxiety, interviewing independent filmmakers, and sharing my creative endeavors, such as publishing a poetry collection and a notebook.
Through it all, the backbone of this blog has been powered by my curiosity with the world and wanting to make it a better place, while still being myself and making silly jokes (puns included).
Lately, I have been more consistent with my film content, honing into this one passion of mine. But, I have come to the conclusion that I want to branch out. Don’t worry! I have no plans to stop blogging. I just want to expand the topics I write about. Storytelling, after all, has many avenues, not just in film.
In the past, on top of blogging, I was also posting on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. This led to burnout over and over again. And while it brought me some joy, I eventually had to ask myself why I kept repeating this tiring cycle. Recently, I have come to the conclusion that quality is more important than quantity, and above all, my happiness is the utmost important.
That being said, I have stepped away from Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for the time being. Being on social media was not good for my mental health and was not great for my already exhausted brain. I decided to listen to my body and step away.
Blogging, however, makes me feel different. I have more control over my content, how it appears, and the stimulation I receive in the process. I am not bombarded by a constant influx of videos and can choose to post what matters to me most. This got me thinking: what do I care about most? Well, beyond the important people in my life, I thought about my hobbies and passions. At the top of this list are movies/TV, storytelling (in general), shedding light on mental health, and the power of creativity.
These are the topics I discussed on my social media, but I often felt hindered because my strength is writing, and in today’s time, with most people having a very short attention span, short captions and 7-second videos did not come naturally to me. A blog post, with longer form content, feels more natural to me. It feels more like home and less like I am being put out in the rain being asked to catch a single rain drop.
So… here I am. Expanding the breadth of topics I blog about will make it easier for me to post more often as some weeks I am in an artsy-mood and not a dissecting-a-film-type-of-mood. Also, some days are heavy with my chronic symptoms and I lean on my creativity to get me through these times. In the end, the range of topics I can cover are increased and I feel like this blog will become a better representation of who I am.
**Thanks for sticking with me, and to those of you who have been here since the beginning of this blog: thank you, thank you, thank you. 🙂
To infinity and beyond!
Aloha Arianna 