5 Years of Blogging, 5 Things I've Learned

Bloganuary is here!

Today is the 29th day of the writing challenge amongst our lovely WordPress Community and the Bloganuary prompt is:

What is something you learned recently?

In response, here is my post, I hope you enjoy!

Be sure to share your thoughts and let me know if you’re participating in the comments below!

1. Changing Themes

I’ve lost count how many times I have changed my website theme. Can anyone relate?

Paragraph and photo arrangement, logos, carousels, ads, or home landing page. I enjoy keeping things fresh I suppose. I’ll see something neat on someone else’s website and want that too.

Byrne theme is what I’ve decided to settle on officially now.

Seasons and holidays are fun to keep up with, so I think I will use those to help to curb my appetite to change things evermore.

All that said, I work hard and have fun taking photos and writing posts. Shout out to our Happiness Engineers! I’m always learning something new on the creative front!

2. I Have a Mix of Endurance and Power

Here’s an random thing I learned about myself recently.

I had some genetic health screening tests and was offered some other tests if I was interested. With the add-ons I learned that I have a mix of C and T variants of the ACTN3 gene within a specific genetic factor called rs1815739. Which means my muscles are more likely to be a mix of fast and slow twitch fibers resulting in a potential for both endurance and power performance.

Essentially certain muscle types can help you excel at some activities over others because they come in two types. Type 1 muscle fibers are valuable for endurance type activities such as distance running, while Type 2 fibers are useful in powerful bursts like sprinting but fatigue faster.

I find it rather confirming to have both variants because wow, can push through hiking on and on for forever, even energy uphill.

3. Lost in Nostalgia

A couple of years ago I went through a lot of changes in life, a midlife crisis of sorts. A lot hit me all at once when I realized how much loss I had endured. At one point even five deaths within my family in one year. Grief and circumstances I hadn’t really properly processed. Then again through beginning of pandemic, like many reflecting on life right now, this unreal simulation we’re in, The Fourth Turning, this ride we can’t get off of, I’ve found myself becoming incredibly nostalgic.

Reminiscing past experiences, situations, friends and family, random people I’ve met, decisions made. Decisions not made.

I recently found my childhood diaries and journals along with items in my hope chest and felt like I was learning about myself all over again.

Though a heavy endeavor to reflect upon, it’s made for some creative projects. Maybe I’ll get to share them someday.

Pink Hello Kitty diary with lock latch open surrounded by origami notes passed in class.

4. Dedicated Creativity

With that, I’ve learned how I need dedicated days for creativity. Not a few hours time, nor a morning, not an afternoon, but a whole day set aside for creative endeavors.

It’s like giving myself permission and permission that is not crunched by time.

I’m learning that I’m much more productive and manage my creative energy and thoughts better this way.

5. Embrace Randomness

I’ve had some weird, random things happen to me. Things no one would ever believe took place if someone hadn’t been there witnessing.

After some bizarre events last summer, I’ve learned to just accept that. Like Pig-Peg, the character from Peanuts, where a low cloud of dirt follows him around everywhere. Not necessarily that I’m always bad luck, but with that, be prepared for something crazy, strange and peculiar, hazard, or ridiculously funny.

In spite of best efforts, assume something to happen. It’s to the point where friends and family will say, “Of course this happened…” and look right at me shocked, yet expectantly.

So now I’ve come to embrace random happenstance. Makes content for a creative story.

It’s going to be a memorable time, guaranteed!