100 Posts

26/02/2019

This week I am back at university and have been quite busy getting things prepared for my final year. As such, I already have trepidations as to what that will mean for this site, but I still plan on aiming for the goal I set in January. By year’s end, I intend on having 365 or more posts written. But while that is the aim this year, overall since I started in late September last year, I have now written 100 posts (not including this one). And I am happy with where it has led so far.

This is by no means a popular website. On any given day, I can have anywhere from a single visitor to around 30. While the numbers may be relatively low, I had more visitors and views in January than I did in the closing months of 2018, and I have already surpassed the January numbers now in February.

My reason for writing is not about the views, however nice they may be, nor even to have people enjoy it (although, again, while not my goal, is very welcome). I am, first and foremost, writing for myself. It’s my development as a person, a thinker, and a writer that drives me to keep on top of this as much as is feasibly possible.

The joy of receiving a notification that someone liked a post or two is gratifying, but I still see this as a stage of growth. I am a mere spec on the internet with a small, sporadic audience and even smaller group of regulars. In the long-term, I would love to see this site grow to see a substantial audience, but I would also not be overly disappointed if it didn’t. There are always more avenues to take; always more ways to voice your thoughts.

As I step over the 100-post mark, it’s not the mini milestone that interests me so much as it is how my writing has improved since my first post. Flicking through, I must say I am actually quite happy with how well the first post turned out – maybe because it had a very specific inspiration as grounds for a response. I would also say that, personally, the better posts, or at least the ones I enjoyed writing more than others, were the ones that were indeed written in response to some form of stimulus. Not to say my critiques of the media or of global politics aren’t worth writing, but my reflective pieces on What Is History? and Lenin and the Russian Revolution (by E. H. Carr and Christopher Hill respectively), I thought, had more value.

So, I do sincerely hope that more will become of this site, either personally, in terms of visitors, or perhaps both. It will be interesting to see what the university year will bring, and what the next 100 posts here will too.

Read the first piece, North Korea – A Question of History HERE

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