A short intro as to how, why and what inspired this blog.
To be completely honest, if you had told me at the start of this year that one of my 2020 achievements would have been that I started a blog, I would have stared at you in a mix of shock and fear. Perhaps it was the combination of my complete lack of knowledge of anything blog-related, mediocre writing skills, the sheer dullness of my everyday life, and the terror that I would be mistaken as a forty-year-old mom, but even the idea of blogging was definitely at the bottom of my to-do list.
“What even is a blog?” - Me circa January 2020
Maybe it was a stroke of luck or a very unfortunate alignment of the stars, but here I am, sitting at my laptop, creating my very first blog post and wondering how on earth I got here.
So let's map it out shall we...
Inspiration
Admittedly, my inspiration for "Essentially Olivia." stems from none other than, yup, tiktok. I happened to stumble upon one of Chriselle Lim's videos, talking about how she started her own blog over eight years ago and it paved the way for her fashion career.
Although I definitely didn't expect to become sponsored by Gucci overnight, I decided "why not?", if all else fails, at least I can say #beentheredonethat.
Of course, there was some more personal inspiration behind this blog as well. One of my good friends, Jennifer, actually started her own blog a couple of months ago. It was one thing to see a thirty-year-old mom run a blog, but to see one of my teenage friends start one only added to my "why not?" list.
Sure, "why not?" But why?
I've always been one with too many thoughts in my head. Most times I filter them out by scribbling them into journals or random scraps of paper around my house. I found comfort in writing, where I could spill out anything about everything and avoid any judgy remarks. I suppose creating this blog completely defeats the whole "privacy" purpose, but blogging does bring something that writing or speaking can't ----- a platform to showcase important ideas permanently.
They say whatever you put on the internet stays on the internet, which is pretty intimidating. But hopefully, this blog will serve as my own little space on the internet with snippets from my everyday life, and my thoughts concerning current events, societal controversy, health, and more!
How?
Ok ok, it's easy to get caught up in future plans, but I think it's always important to remember your beginnings. How did this blog even come to be?
Here's a little list of steps I took in creating this blog (if there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I love lists).
1. The Stage of Excitement After deciding that I was going to become a #blogger, I spent a little too much time flocking about, debuting my status to my parents and sister.
2. Research To be honest, I had almost no idea how to even write blog posts. So I spent the next couple hours searching up all things blog-related. Some blogs I looked to for inspiration include: The Chriselle Factor, A Cup of Jo, The Mighty, and lots more that I would recommend checking out!
3. Wix Wix Wix Originally, I tried to start my blog up on Wordpress, "the world's most flexible website builder", but after spending way too much time how to work a "block", I resorted to just using Wix. #notsponsored (but I do find Wix to be one of the easiest/professional website builders out there)
4. Contemplation How do you name a blog? By far the biggest struggle I had all month. I tried googling inspiration, pestering my sister, and even a blog-name generator. Eventually, "Essentially Olivia." stuck, a name simple yet memorable. Plus, 'essentially' happens to be one of my favorite words :-) (might use it too many times in essays).
6. The Big Reveal Truthfully, this has not happened yet, at the time I'm writing this. But hey, we're getting there.
I guess that brings us to the end of my first blog post. Although it doesn't seem like much now, I'm super excited to grow this page into a culmination of thoughts that, hopefully, will be growing for years to come <3
Essentially,
Olivia.