Of BLOGS and VLOGs

Blogs have radically evolved since I started dabbling in it.  Now as I browse through modern blogs , they look more like travel and food diaries, complete with cool backgrounds, stylish designs and breathtaking pictures chronicling the authors' travel and palate adventures.  Glossy and perfect just like browsing a magazine.

I am old school by heart.  Not only because I'm middle aged but blogs for me meant the beauty of written words, and that readers go along with you on a journey without visuals.  Pictures, although fantastic, distract from what's written, making words secondary.  

The new generation of bloggers have gotten so used to using a few words and preferred showing people images instead, hence the birth of Vlogging.  I have nothing against it, but gone were the days when a person simply blogs because he/she has something to share to the world in order to connect.  Nowadays, vlogs have dispensed with words, and anyone with a mobile phone can create content and upload it on the internet.  Now vlogs are about views and admiration from other people, and the ultimate validation that somebody's vlog is deemed relevant is the number of subscribers/followers he/she has.  Rarely will you come across a blog that is about a person's innermost thoughts (pains, joys, realizations etc), but they are all about places to see, food to eat and things to acquire.

This evolution is inevitable I suppose, because now, more than ever, with the proliferation of internet in our lives, everything in life has become a race.  Faster uploads, bigger adventures, things done on a grander scale have become the standards that the younger generation must adhere to.  Now, if you do things at a slower and more deliberate pace, people will say you're old, makupad or worse obsolete.

On some days, I simply wish things would slow down a bit so that we can all take a pause and see that all these hurrying up is not doing anyone any good.  For a while, with the onset of the pandemic we did that.  Phrases like smelling the roses and taking the time to drink one's coffee became popular anew. Two years into it however, and the world is again in motion, hurrying things along, trying to speed things up.  Fed up with isolation, new work conditions, the need to move and get back lost time can be felt in the air.  People are less patient, quicker to judge and less tolerant of any delay.  Back to the bullet train we all go, and I just pray that as life passes us all by, we don't lose out on the important moments for if we do, then we are all in for a future of regrets.

 A good friend of mine who inspired me to start this blog many years back has managed to sustain his  passion for journal writing.  As I pore over his more than a decade body of work I have to admit that I was filled with envy.  Not the green eyed type, but more of a sigh and regret filled envy that maybe I should have followed his example so that I would have more or less a record of my journey in life and its curve balls.

So here I am, ten years later since my last posted musings, trying my hand to revive my rusty writing skills.

What has happened since 2011? Professionally, nothing much.  Personally, a ton.

For one, I thought I would only have two kids.  A boy and a girl.  Fourteen years after having my daughter, I gave birth at the age of 42.  Needless to say, a lot of people were shocked when it happened (though the fact that I AM married shouldn't have ruled out this possibility), the joy that the new baby brought to our lives was immense. 

Then came another curve ball.   I had a follow up baby eleven months later.  So here I am, a ripe age of 45 with two toddlers who call me MAM MAM trying to juggle four kids of varying age and temperament while coping with the demands of work amidst a pandemic.

Most days, my life is a blur of activities from sun-up to sundown, and since my bunso has decided that playtime is when all the lights are out, I have been sleep deprived for three years and running. I am holding on to life by a handful of vitamins and pure will discovering strengths and resilience I did not know I possess.  I have added creases to my face, more grey on my hair and muscles on my arms from carrying squealing babies left and right.

What has life taught me in the past ten years? Expect the unexpected, prepare for what God has planned and savor every moment in between.  After all,  this moment is already my past in the making.