Introducing Ade is 2

This post marks the two year anniversary of 'www.introducingade.blogspot.com'. Two years of writing posts inspired by experiences. Most of 'em mine, few of people around me. Experiences I've labelled as "stories" because that was what our experiences were as we tell others. Some experiences we share as jokes and laugh about it. People could also be shy and lock up shameful experiences. They could bury them deep in their unconscious and lock 'em as secrets, I wonder why?
I didn't dream of living a life to build empires neither do I not crave for fictional immortality. All I have to be remembered for when I'm gone are my experiences and that's why I share 'em using this platform. Either good or bad I welcome them because they made me.

How it started...

The idea of blogging came from Shirleyanne. Prior to her suggestion I had no idea what it was. Sure I had designed websites in the past, also had pages on 'Tripod' and 'Bravenet' back then. I was also used to picking up paper to write issues that involved me.
She was like, you could post your write ups online using Blogger. It sounded like a good idea but I wasn't a fan of short stories or posts. I had to learn to convey my thoughts in few words. But first...I needed a blog address and a blog title.

And I shall call thee...

I desired a name that won't contain words including "Memoir","Dairy", "Adventures", "Life of a...", "Chronicles of...", "Musings" and "Nigeria(n)/9ja". Those names lacked creativity. I decided to 'consult' my first love - music - and got ideas for my blog name and title. The name 'Introducing Ade' was inspired by Joss Stone's debut album - Introducing Joss Stone. The blog title, 'Story of The Year', was from a band of same name. It fit perfectly to my what I wanted the blog to be about.
The best way to introduce myself to YOU was by sharing by stories of my year.

The first post was [Any] or Nothing, and since then I've been consistent with posting materials. The greatest challenge at the inception was how to upload materials. I was mobile 90 percent of my day and in places without computer access. Blogger solved it with the 'Upload using email' feature. I could be anywhere and simply use my phone to type and send to the email address. I composed posts while in parties, cars...and upload with ease. With over 260 posts, about 20 of of them were typed and uploaded with a computer, the rest were done with my phone (including this post).

Blogville...or whatever they call it...
It seems everyone wants to blog. Everybody has something to say and believe their life was interesting. Well...after a month they return to their original hobby and quit blogging. There are lots of abandoned blogs out there and the number was on a daily increase. To those people, blogging was a good idea at that particular time only to lose interest.

I noticed most Nigerian bloggers were females and most active Nigerian bloggers were not based in Nigeria.
I have to say this, for someone based in Nigeria and doesn't make money from blogging, I am not aware of anyone that posts as frequent and with original materials as I do. Since 2010, the only month with no post was my period in NYSC orientation camp Adamawa and that was because my phone crashed.
261 posts in 24 months, average about 11 posts in a month...that's about a post every 3 days. And I still get to earn a living and live my life as I continue to share my experiences.

I found myself reading blogs authored by strangers. I wasn't reading just to comment and invite them to mine, I wanted to learn and see issues from their reality. I have to admit I was hardly impressed. The reason is simple, a whole lot of bloggers were not their real-self in their posts. Totally fake set of people...China fake.

I see 'writing' as an art to express and understand oneself... the easiest means to attain awareness. Pick up a pen to write about how your day was and you would discover new meanings to events and people encountered during the attempt to place sketchy thoughts into words. But in order to discover those meanings you had to reach a certain level of objectivity - to accept yourself for who you were. In simple words, you had to be honest with yourself. A whole lot of bloggers focus on their persona instead as they write - the way they want their (majorly anonymous) readers to see them. They write about the rainbows and ignore those aspects that brought dark clouds or shame. I had read blogs that if I were to write a profile on the authors, majority of 'em would be angels or the perfect girlfriend/wife and that's a fucking lie. These set of people always go for the norm in their write ups when in reality they are not normal.

This self deception extend to readers that comment as well. Then again, when the writer portray herself/himself as a saint what the f*ck do you expect visitors that comment do. For instance...

I noticed everytime a blogger posted after a lengthy absence the first paragraph would read like...

"Dusting cobwebs off blog..."

Like I implied earlier, a lying author beget false comments. So whenever the post begin with "Dusting cobwebs..." I read comments like...

"We missed you, glad you are back"

But seriously, who cared if you had nothing to write? It wasn't like your blog had up to 2 percent of Prison Break first season's excitement.

The issue with content...

I was honest with my feelings in my posts. I am certain because of friends made, then enemies made out of friends... but that's life - everyone can't like you. I try to respect people's privacy in my posts but it's fucking difficult. A few people read my blog and say, "so that's what you feel about me, I don't think we can continue as friends. I don't trust you".

I don't regret whatever I write because that was the best way to know true/real friends. They get to know me for who I was and still stick around.

Blogging provides an intrinsic satisfaction and that's why you won't see me submit my blog to be possibly nominated for 'Nigeria Blog Awards' or those sh!t - no offence to the organisers. I really appreciate everyone that read my blog but the first person I want to amuse in my posts was me. I don't need any accolades and recognition to achieve that. If I begin to consider the readers or awards, my posts would likely portray a persona that the readers would like. I would begin to paint another picture of who I really was just to please them.

Two years don waka...

I don't know for how long I will keep on with this but believe the reason to stop cannot be due to lack of materials. An issue I face was being confused with what I've uploaded and not. There are times I forget to click the 'Send' button after typing a material.

For now...it suit me just fine and I will keep on writing. I checked my stats and was surprised to see I average close to 5000 page views per month...I assumed only 50 people read my blog. What are you guys reading and not commenting?

Thank You ALL...

Welcome to the Story of the [Year]