Since then, I've hit my 20s, graduated high school, graduated college with a Bachelor's in English & American Literature with a minor in Creative Writing. I've started and ended relationships. I've traveled around Texas and to California for the first time, learned how to handle amusement park visiting at paces that are perfect for my family. I've learned how to write professional research papers with citations, how to interpret literature, and the beginnings of how to act. I've developed my writing, successfully writing a handful of short stories, most of which fall under the realm of fantasy and science fiction. I've made friends and lost touch with people along the way. I'm about to begin graduate school in the fall.
My overall point is that I have grown a lot and I want this blog to be a reflection of my growth as a person. My goal with this blog was to communicate in a way that was fun and that reflected my personal way of interpreted and enjoying literature. The goal has never been to have a consistent posting schedule or to be the best blogger on the internet. I just wanted to toss my voice out into cyberspace and see if any other voices echoed back. This is why the name has always been The Real World According to Sam.
This blog was never meant to be the number one book blog in the state or the country. My goal has never been to get free books from authors or publishers, or to be picked up by any publications for reviewing. The goal has always just been to write and express the thoughts that swirl around up in my mind when I read books/plays/comics or watch movies.
I am going to be continuing with this blog, but I just wanted everyone to know what this blog is really about. I want to go back to the core that began it and not be concerned with deadlines, views, or fitting into a niche. Many websites about starting a blog always advise finding a niche, finding the one thing you know and writing about it. They say to post consistently, keep a schedule so readers know when to expect things. While I've attempted this method in the past, I've found that it is almost too stifling for me. I like to branch out and experiment. I don't read the newest best sellers, I like to find hidden gems. I love having discussions with people.
In past years, the posts have been very colloquial and this was purposeful. I have spent a lot of time writing serious, formal papers over the last 4 years. I wanted this to be a place where I could just "talk" and not worry too much about sounding like a serious person. I like to have fun, although I do know when to be serious. Scrolling through posts from the past years I have seen typos, grammatical errors such as run-on sentences, and I have noticed formatting errors that vary between web and mobile. The first few years were a major learning experience and have provided me with a window into my younger self as a writer, to see where I have come in the past few years. I considered going back through each post to update content and fix errors, however, I've come to the realization that changing those things would begin to make this space feel like WORK and would stifle the voice I presented in the older posts. I have spent a lot of time writing and as a result, my voice has developed and my grammar has moved to a higher level. I once worried that having grammar errors in those old posts might lead some people to believe I had a low level of professionalism or that I didn't closely edit my posts before publishing.
None of that is true. I am highly professional. I edited every post, but as with any other student with a hectic reading and assignment schedule, I couldn't nitpick every sentence to make it just right the way that I would have liked to. Sometimes, when you focus too much on doing things perfectly, you lose sight of what originally made it fun and freeing. It feels more like work than play; this blog has ALWAYS been a place that I wanted to be my own personal playground, so to speak.
I will still be posting, and since this is my little world in the corner of cyberspace, I'm going to play around with it. Don't expect to always find a book review or a consistent posting schedule. I might put up a list of comics I've read and suggest for others to try out. I might post up a short story I wrote during my undergraduate years to start moving forward in a way that I really want to with my writing. I might just scribble thoughts down on something totally random that I stumble across. I'm not here writing this blog to entertain people, or to provide a certain service. I just want to write. Posts published pre-2017 DO have errors, so please be aware of this. Any reviews I post in the future will be more finely edited since my eye for catching errors has gotten significantly better.
I still welcome comments and recommendations for things anyone would like to see! I've always enjoyed the feedback that I've been left. It brightens my day to know that people like what I'm writing. Posts pre-2017 are going to be left as is in order to serve as a time capsule for myself to mark my progression as a writer. In middle school I scribbled down random ideas for fanfiction (Pirates of the Caribbean and The Simpsons) that were never completed on paper. In high school I used to write a poem a day just to pass the time when I was done with work...typically in French class, although my poems were never in French. In college I wrote book reviews on the side, while writing short stories and other random creative pieces for assignments. I've kept all my writing and this is no different for me. Pre-2017 posts are just another collection of writings I did at one point in my life that I can reflect back on.
Thank you for making it all the way through this post and taking the time to get a little peek into what I meant for this to be, as well as what I WANT it to be going forward.
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