This post is not going to be the usual post. This one is special. This is not going to be me expressing my views on some problem that We face, or the problems that exist in today’s society, yet often blatantly ignored by most. This post is going to be much closer to my heart than the rest.
This post is about Me. Specifically why and how I started this blog. No, I’m not going to brag about myself, nor am I expecting pity or sympathy from the readers. I don’t expect people to respect me any more or any less after reading this, nor am I writing this as a manipulation tactic.
This is just Me. Live and on a web page.
It is going to be a bit longer than my usual post length, but hey you’ll be getting some insight in my mind, heart and what drives me to write. It will be worth it.
Do you believe in coincidences? I stand to believe that there are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. This statement has become quite popular.
Everything has a story that makes everything make sense. – Richard Castle (Castle)
I’m being completely honest here, I started to work on this about a month ago. But then I paused and I did the Long Distance Relationship post. Why? Because that was on my mind at that time. Some of my closest friends, my brethren, my ‘bros’ if you will, moved across the big pond to pursue higher studies and braving the LDR. Every single one of my posts has had and will have a distinct trigger, which sparked an epiphany in this crazy mind of mine. It was no coincidence that I had to put this post on hold, because as it turns out fate wants this post to be out there on the day that I published my first post, exactly one year ago. That’s right, 1st September 2018 is the 1 year anniversary of the Outlandish Community.
Before we get started, Tell me, why did you start writing? What were your triggers? What is your inspiration? Whether you write to share with others, or you write to make yourself feel better, or even if you just write a personal journal, Feel free share down below.
As for the gist of my story, The way some people behave, it bewilders me. It is as simple as that. But to get to this point, you need to know what all has happened in the past.
Why did I pursue Mental Health?
Why did I choose to write about relationships?
Why did I decide to shed some light on the problem that most of us face in day-to-day life but never give it much of a thought?
The answer to this is the last part of the last question itself.
People Never Gave It Much Of A Thought.
Before I get into Why I started this blog, let me tell you How I got around to writing posts to help people. Let’s start at the beginning.
In the Past, I have never written anything spectacular, Never have I ever won any essay competitions, nor has my school work been published in school magazines etc. I have had no background in writing except the one article I wrote, as a class assignment, which got praised by possibly the best teacher we had at our school. No, this wasn’t a public laurel, we had to send her via email and she responded back. Totally discreet, No one knew what I had written. That was the only time when my writing was praised by anyone. One would think that this incident would inspire me and push me on a writing venture. But no, this was a one-off. This happened in my school days when I was in 9th grade. For the next 5 years, I had nothing to do with creative writing. I say creative writing because we all are familiar with the mind-numbing task of writing assignments.
I believe exams have a stimulating effect on the brain. Before you laugh or form a wrong opinion about me, hear me out. We rake our brains to learn new things, to make sense of what we are reading, to cram as much information as possible in a short time span. As a byproduct, the creative juices start flowing. Maybe this is what the inventor of exams intended.
I say this because, during almost every exam in my engineering course, I have had a new creative urge. A simple explanation for this is: The mind gets bored due to studying and starts to explore the things that it may find interesting. For me, I had multiple things, multiple creative things that I wanted to pursue, things like Handwriting Analysis (Graphology) and Writing blogs are the most noteworthy. And that urge got significantly weaker as the exams ended. This too has a couple of simple explanations. One, the epiphanies stop flowing because our mind is no longer active as during the exam time. And Two, we forget those things because we are too busy enjoying our time free from the shackles of exams.
Even though I didn’t pursue Graphology all that much, but I did spend a good amount of hours on it. The major thing that peaked my interest was Blogging. The blogging phase, it was different. I was more engrossed in it. And there was someone in my corner who pushed me to do it when I wandered away from it during the post-exam phase. If it wasn’t for The One, chances are this blog would not exist. The first post I wrote was a dedication to that One.
This is How I started my blog. Now to the Why part.
As you know, at Present, the major topics I focus on are Mental Health and Positivity, Problems that we face in today’s society, Relationships – Guide and True Stories, Animal Welfare. This list is going to increase a lot more over the next few years. If you have a suggestion as to what I should write on, drop a comment below.
Inspiration strikes any time, any place. The following quote resonates quite strongly with me.
Every post I have written, every single one of them has drawn inspiration from experiences in my life. All the content, all my thoughts, all my opinions and all my advice, stem from a part of me. They are a part of me.
If my past experiences are anything to judge me by, I believe I am a pretty good listener. If someone who has experienced this reads this, you can testify below. Without your confession, I’ll just come across as a cocky arrogant prick.
Being a good listener I am privy to the problems the people around me are facing, the problems can be related to relationships or battling depression or even as simple as venting built up resentment. When this happened multiple times, when I came across similar problems from multiple sources, it got me thinking. It got me thinking about the popularity of the said problem. If in the small set of people who I interact with, a small group of people out of our insane world population, the problem can peek its ugly head multiple times, then it is fair to say that there are many more such individuals out there who are battling the same issue.
This is the sole reason why I don’t mention any names in my blogs. The blogs are inspired by “the seeming mistake or a blind alley” either in my own life or in the life of someone close to me. I don’t want to shed blinding spotlight on our downtime, I may reveal their names when they are at the top. I will give it the spotlight when it is their time to shine. And then everyone will respect them because everyone would then know the shit they’ve gone through, and they still managed to achieve their dreams.
So, Why Mental Health? Mental Health is something that is quite a mystery to those free from any mental specialties. The people who don’t suffer from mental health issues, they usually see mental health issues as something that is quite easy to deal with. It is perceived as something stupid and its victims, are weak. It is quite hard for them to understand what the other person is going through. Non-victims, they can’t grasp the magnitude of the situation until they are in that spot.
And this is not entirely their fault.
Mental Health issues have been looked down upon and have a been considered a social stigma for many years now. It is only now that the awareness is on the rise and the dense mist of ignorance is starting to dissipate. It is gaining recognition as a valid threat, and with the rise in suicides and suicidal thoughts amongst teenagers, people are asking WHY.
Anxiety, depression or even a constant unsettling feeling, everything seems small at times, but these things have a tremendous impact on our lives, on our personalities, on the way we perceive the world around us.
In a world where the need for social validation is a pandemic, no one expresses their innermost feelings, their true selves, fearing social humiliation or boycott. There are groups and content out there which try to help the ones troubled by mental issues, but very few of them offer effective anonymity as an online community.
I have previously expressed my thoughts on Self Evaluation and Paranoia, Healing Wounds, and many more. You can check them out here, Human Mind. This page also features other things that go on in one’s mind, like Why People Cry, and Why People Drink.
Why Societal Problems? Today’s society has gotten way to fake, materialistic, selfish and egotistical. And that pisses me off. When people are supposed to become more open-minded about various things, things have taken a wrong turn. Sure their minds have become more open, but the focus is all wrong. The taboo on Mental Health issues is one of the big problems that we are facing. Some parts of my post, Our Dearly Beloved Broken Society, were inspired by the controversial web series 13 Reasons Why.
That was my trigger.
Some People do not like that show. Some say that it was quite dangerous or that it was wrongly done or that it glorifies suicide. I don’t agree. I believe the focus point of that show was not the girl who killed herself, the main point was to spark a sense of realization in people’s minds. A sense of realization that it is the little things that lead to the big outcome. Awareness that even if you did one small thing, you don’t know what the other person is going through and whether your little deed will send that person over the edge.
I am not justifying what she did, but for me, the spotlight was on Clay. He was the only one who recognized what was wrong with the culture and the society. He was the only one who was willing to do something to make things right. When everyone turned a blind eye, he did the right thing. So, to the people who hate that show, think again, refocus your mind.
And that’s what I want to do. No matter how hard the topic is, no matter how tabooed the topic is, if saying that is the right thing, I am going to do it.
What I’m trying to convey here is that Don’t focus on the impact, focus on the ways to prevent things like this, not just suicide but all the other things mental issues that we keep bottled up, from ever happening. Focus on helping people handle things better. Handle things more effectively, efficiently and in a healthy manner. The solution to any problem will never be ending your own life or sterilizing your life with multiple bottles of alcohol.
Why Relationships? A boy likes a girl. What does “likes” actually mean? This used to mean that he found her interesting, attractive, and wanted to know her better, he liked her because she was his ray of sunshine on a rather cloudy day. He “liked” her used to mean that he wanted to be with her rest of their lives after a point past which it is termed as love.
Attraction is when you find someone interesting even before getting to know them. You make an effort to know them better, know them for who they are. This is commonly called a crush. But crushes pass. You move on once you come across some quality that changes your view about that person.
This is where love comes in. When you continue to be emotionally involved with that person even after knowing everything there is to know about that person. You are still attracted to them, you still find them interesting.
However, this has changed A LOT over the past years. People nowadays are giving up on relationships all too easily. They mistake attraction, crushes and flirting with reciprocated flirts, as a relationship. Terms like sacrifice and compromise in a relationship are now seen as a sign of weakness by the so-called “elite” of the society. Moreover, They are more meaningless relationships. These relationships are 90% physical. Just like short bouts of stress release. And as a result, the term “Like” now mostly refers to a purely physical context. Now the person doesn’t like the person in the sense of attraction, Now it is more along the lines of Lust.
That is what prompted me to pen the What makes Relationships to be Everlasting post.
In the Future, near and far, there will be many more things, many more issues that I will tackle head-on. And in doing so, I will be needing input and feedback from all of you. Some of you have voiced your thoughts, And I am grateful for that.
If you respect my views if you relate to what I try to express, Thank You.
Whatever problems that you might be going through, whatever issues that you might want to open up about, whatever issues that you see around you and need a channel to vent, my doors will always be open to all. If you wish to be anonymous, it is perfectly alright.
Everything that I write, everything that I put forth before you, I do it so that I can try to make the lives of all of you, better. One post at a time. Maybe I touched some hearts, maybe I didn’t. Maybe one post helped someone but the other didn’t, but as the one post helps someone and this cascades over and over again, it won’t be considered as a defeat.
If you do figure out why I chose the name ThinkOutlandish, reveal your views to others down below.
