Wassaaaaaaappp!

Sup bitches! (Hopefully that sets the tone for the rest of this blog) The names Shawny, but you can call me Shawny. I’m just a guy sat in his bedroom trying to do something meaningful with his life. I’m sure some of you may be able to relate, some of you may be sat in your bedrooms right now. Some of you, may even be trying to do something meaningful with your lives. Good Luck with all of that guys. Stay positive and never let anyone talk you out of following your passions. Don’t worry I’m not going to get too philosophical with you, I’m no motivational speaker (Maybe in another life, another place… But not here, not now). Having conversations with people is undoubtedly one of my favourite things to do. I try not to just talk to the people I know, but also with people I may not know or may not agree with (I even try to talk to myself sometimes. Mainly Sundays, not much goes on, on Sundays). I’ve always been a fan of writers that are able to have conversations with their readers. And when I write, I like to try and maintain a chill dialogue with whoever maybe be reading. Which in this case, would be you. Hi! (Try to imagine a massive grin and an awkward wave there as well if you can). So basically that’s the whole reason why I’m doing this blog. To have conversations with people; with the people I know and with the people I don’t. And let’s see if we can’t learn a little something about ourselves and each other along the way. Also DISCLAIMER (I have no idea how to do this but fuck it). If you’re easily offended or don’t like swearing, I don’t think you’ll find much joy on here. But that’s okay, I still love you.

What’s my blog going to be about?

When I was setting up this page, WordPress asked me what my blog was going to be about. And guys… I was shook! I didn’t know the answer. And that made me feel a little silly in all honesty. I’m setting up a blog and I don’t even know what it’s about? What am I doing? And then I started back tracking. I don’t know the first thing about writing a blog, I thought maybe I shouldn’t set one up after all. No one’s going to read it. No one’s going to care. And just like that I was ready to put the car in reverse and back up out of the driveway. And that was usually my go to response whenever anything challenging showed up in life. It would be much easier to run away from it all and not face whatever hurdles it may throw my way. But not this time. This time something was different. You see, my whole life; the only things I ever wanted to do was to travel the world, and be a writer. These are my passions, these are the things that I should let no one talk me out of doing, especially not myself. You ever do something that you totally fell in love with from the first second? Something that made you feel truly happy when you were doing it?

Growing up, my family, we didn’t go on many holidays, they were few and far between. But like most things in life, it wasn’t the experiences that I didn’t have that left an impression, it was the experiences that I did have. My first ever family holiday. We went to India, a state called Kerala. Gods own country they call it over there. It’s just this beautifully stunning place, a landscape so heavily influenced by nature, evergreen forests, mountains and fields. And the people, are some of the most welcoming and gentle people I’ve ever met. I remember my dad waking up the whole family at some ridiculous time in the morning, must have been around 4:00 am (That’s like bed time for me now-a-days). So he woke us all up and he made us all hike up this mountain (it was more of a big a hill if I’m being honest, but I’m going with mountain. Sue me), and I remember severely disliking the experience. As a kid I was ever too excited about having to do any physically straining tasks. But, begrudgingly, I made it all the way to the top. About an hour and a half it took us. It was a bloody nightmare. But one that would change the rest of my life. My dad wanted us to be able to see the sun rising from the top of this ‘mountain’ And I think that, that moment, was quite possibly, the first time I ever fell in love. I saw the sun coming out of the horizon and giving birth to the evergreen landscape with its light and I was so moved by it. You know how certain moments can just touch your heart and move you so deeply? Move you so deeply that you don’t even understand it. Or why it happened. But you don’t need to understand it. Sometimes it’s okay to just get lost in a moment, in a feeling. Sometimes it’s okay to not know why, sometimes its better. I don’t know if it was the altitude or the lack of sleep but, something happened within me. Something that’s always been with me ever since that moment. You see, when I saw that sunrise, I was able to see how perfect nature really is, how captivating it can be. And I told myself that I wanted to see more, that I wanted to see all of it. And that feeling has been what I’ve been chasing ever since. And I find that feeling; every time I lay eyes on a sunrise or sunset, every time I explore and discover something new, every time I travel and every time I write.

Got a little side tracked there, but getting back to the long winded point I was trying to make. I was going to run away from this blog. I was going to let my fear of failure defeat me before I had already begun. And from talking to a lot of people, I think this is an issue faced by many. It’s almost scary to think that there’s a lot of us out there that won’t ever get a chance to show the world just how bright we can shine. But I made a promise once. A promise that I was always going to try regardless. Even if I failed, even if I never got to do it all, at the very least, I’ll have tried my absolute best. So then, there was no way I could back out of this, because failure maybe an option, but quitting isn’t. So here I am. Blogging. Never thought I’d be a blogger to be honest, I hope its chill.

If you’re reading this and thinking what you could take away from this blog. I would hope that you take away the thought that you should never let your fears dictate who you become or what you do. I would also hope that you never let the fear of failure stop you from doing the things that make you feel like you’re in love with life. Or at the very least, stop you from trying. I also hope that you never have to wake up at 4 am. And if you ever do. I can only apologise.

And to answer the question; what is this blog going to be about? I don’t know. I don’t want to know. Because sometimes, it’s okay to not know, sometimes its better. 🙂

References (For the pictures. Don’t send for me pls)

[1] Cool-Quotes.org. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.cool-quotes.org/love-everyone-quotes-image-59704/

[2] Vagamon Hill station Kerala, India. (2014). Retrieved from http://shamons.blogspot.com/2014/08/vagamon-hill-station-kerala-india.html