Being Interesting
Ideally you’ve noticed, or perhaps you haven’t, but I haven’t really been keeping up with the proposed schedule I set for this blog. One of the main reasons is that I’ve struggled with finding topics to write about, and more crucially, I’ve struggled to know if they’re interesting or not.
For myself, usually the topic matters less than what the person has to say about that topic. I’ve watched plenty of anime, or comedies that mostly feature everyday things. Everyday things are relatable, drawing on common experiences, and can highlight things we tend to take for granted. I guess, what I’m partly second guessing is my own writing ability, I’m not sure I can take everyday topics and make them interesting.
The second component of that, is can I get enough people to click on articles that on their face, might not be too interesting. Even if I can draft some compelling, interesting narrative about seemingly boring facets of my life, can I get people to engage with them? I’ve tried never to care too much about how many people read my articles, but sometimes I can’t help but to think about how to boost those numbers.
As a little peek behind the curtain, one of my articles, talking about the ending of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, has gotten almost 1,000 views, a far broader reach then I ever expected my humble little blog to have. When that article started to take off, I did consider pivoting to spending more of my time writing about media, rather than my own life.
In a lot of ways, writing about media is simply easier. Rather than zero in on something in my life, and create a narrative about it, I can take whatever media I’ve been engaging with, and just give my thoughts on it. Of course, that’s simplifying a ton of work that goes into good media criticism, but still, that comes a little more naturally for me lately.
If I was ever to try and turn this blog into something that would boost future career endeavors, writing about media, games especially, would probably be more useful in the long run. If I ever wanted to get into games journalism, or become a games critic, writing more reviews or articles about games would certainly be more beneficial then writing about my life.
Then again, that’s not why I started this blog in the first place. I started this blog as a way to document my life and my experiences while living in Japan. In the beginning, it was easy to find endless topics to write about, because everything was new and interesting. As my life in Japan has become less novel, and new experiences are fewer and further between, my own life has also become less interesting.
Maybe that’s a sign I need to push myself out of my comfort zone. I didn’t come to Japan just to have some new experiences, then settle into a routine after all. I wanted to experience as much as I could, then return home with a new perspective and new experiences that helped me grow as a person.
I’m hoping that as the countdown to my time coming to a close in Japan starts to feel more real, that will serve as good motivation to seek out new adventures while I still can. For the last little while, it’s felt like the middle act of a story. There have been ups and downs, some drama, some adventures, but it all tends to blend together.
I’m hoping that as I usher in the new year, I’ll feel the metaphorical curtain rise on the grand finale to my time here in Japan. While the time I’ll have left will probably still feel long in the day to day, I hope the remaining months will feel short enough that it drives me to seek out new things.
Being able to go to Tokyo on a whim each weekend is a luxury I’m sure most people will kill to have. Before finding out where I would be placed with the JET programme, I would have been over the moon to hear my placement would be so close to Tokyo. There’s still so much to explore in Tokyo, and in the surrounding prefectures, that I don’t want to look back and feel like I wasted my time.
On the other hand, feeling like I’m stuck in the middle act of a story often has me looking forward. I look forward to moving back home, seeing family and friends everyday, being surrounded by a culture that I’m familiar with, and not having to worry about the ever present language barrier.
It’s been a tricky push and pull, and sometimes I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels. It’s not the first time I’ve felt this way, nor will it be the last. Complacency, disinterest, the lack of novelty, it’s all part of the human condition, at least as I’ve come to understand it anyways.
So, hopefully this musing on interest, or lack thereof, has been interesting enough. If you’ve made it this far, I suppose I’m doing something right. A blog in and of itself is a bit of an exercise in vanity, and so maybe I should just run away with that, and really indulge myself in my writing.
Rather than concern myself with how interesting something might be to a reader, I can instead focus on how interesting it is to write about. Afterall, usually the best stories come from someone who is eager to tell them, not how interesting the story itself is. I can’t promise I’ll always find the eagerness, or that I’ll stick to my proposed schedule, but I enjoy having this blog as a personal outlet, and hopefully you enjoy it too.
