Finding Balance…..(A personal post)

Hey everyone. I’ll try to warn you all in advance, this is not going to be a happy post. It’s a post that I’m quite honestly writing with a thumping heart, as I don’t quite know what the response is going to be like. I have been blogging for two and a half years now, and next year in June my three year anniversary is coming up. When I started my blog I had really no idea what I was doing. It was just something that I created to share my thoughts on the stuff that I loved: Movies, Tv series, Anime, Books and Boardgames. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought that I would reach more than 1500 followers, from all kinds of places around the world. I have made friends here, and I’m really talking about real and true friendships. That for me has always been the one thing that I have always been the most grateful for. But that said, lately I feel that things have become unbalanced for me. I will explain what I mean by that later. There really is no easy way to say this so I guess I will just spit it out: this might be my final year of blogging.

Work

If only work was more like this…

Right now, without getting into any real details, things are really rough at work. Basically what it comes down too is that the work that I do is usually done by six people, and it’s now being done by only two. Literally. And guess who one of those two people is? That’s right: me. Some days things are fine, other days I come home pretty exhausted, and just want to crash and read a book or watch something. For those of you who have known me for a while now, you also know one of the things I really like to do is read your posts, and write comments on them. But I have also started thinking that lately the balance between work, blogging and free time is to put it mildly off balance. Of the 5-6 hours of free time that I usually have on weekdays, I spent 3-4 hours of that on reading posts and writing comments. Hence I only have 1, maybe 2 hours of time to do other things. I used to comment on my phone at work in less busy times, but those times are gone, at least for the moment. I have a lot of hobbies, and I started to realise that as much love that I have for blogging, I am maybe spending a little bit too much time on this. There are dvds, books, and boardgames that are still in boxes and that I have never even opened yet. And that isn’t even a joke.

Changes

Not all changes are good…..

Having said this, I am going to be taking a step back for a bit, and be a little bit less active. You might have already noticed that I haven’t really been visiting your blogs lately, much less have left any kind of comments. No worries, I will gradually return and start reading again, as well as provide some of my customary comments. I will just not be doing it as actively as I have been doing the past two years. I might miss an occasional post, or maybe not leave a comment but just a like. I am doing this because I know that if I don’t, I might stop blogging alltogether sooner rather than later. It was beginning to feel too much like work, instead of a hobby. I guess it’s the old saying, too much of a good thing is, well too much. It is quite frankly hard to make a decision like this. But I hope you understand why I am making it. I just want to focus a bit on other things as well, and get some more rest instead of adding more pressure. That is usually the road to a burn out, and I am not willing to risk that, no matter how much I love all of you.

The near future

Always in motion the future is…..

So what does this mean for my own blog? Well, I will still try and publish posts whenever I can. I currently am still in the middle of my collab with the wonderful Irina (who has already made it clear to me that she won’t allow me to leave lol), and there is another seriously cool project coming up with the awesome Ayano that I am very excited about as well. Those will definitely still go ahead. If all goes well another collab that I am not going to tell you about just yet, and is something entirely different than I have ever done, will be seeing daylight in December as well. Next to the collabs I will try and put out some other content, including the long awaited review for the Korean drama Voice, season 7 of Game of Thrones, and new installments of Bloggers in the Spotlight and The Wors/Best anime you (might not) have seen yet. One or two book reviews will be heading your way too, as well as hopefully a few new movie reviews. In other words, I will still try to bring you as much content as I can manage.

The far future

Okay, this image was maybe a bit too dramatic…..

And that brings me to the ominous message in the beginning, of maybe ending my blogging career entirely. Well, first off nothing is set in stone yet. But next year is going to be the year of some major changes for me. My company is moving to another town, and instead of me being home in five minutes, it will now take me more than an hour of travel time back and forth. That means that the precious free time that I have, will be even less next year. I have also been living at home supporting my parents because of various reasons. In order for me to cut back on my travel time, in all likelyhood I will start searching for my own place that is nearer to my work. Which means another very big change for me. With all these things going on, it might become impossible for me to keep up blogging. The way it is now, things are already very busy, next year it will become even crazier. I don’t want to leave to be honest, and I will try to keep my blog up and running. At the same time I don’t want to keep a promise I might not be able to keep. That’s why I wrote this post as I don’t want to disappear into the night so to speak.

A heartfelt thank you

Could not have said it better myself!

While this post might seem like doom and gloom, I will try everything I can to keep spending as much time as I can here. Even if things might end completely next year, one thing I will continue to do is keep in touch. I am incredibly thankful of all the amazing friendships that I have made here, and the wonderful support I have always had from everyone for me and my blog. I could not have kept on blogging without the support from all of you, and for that you all truly have my heartfelt thanks. Everyone who has read my posts over the years, left a like or a comment or contacted me personally, all of you, are amazing. At the same time I also want to apologise for dropping this bomb and become a less active member of the community at least for a bit. I hope you understand why I came to this decision. I have to think about myself for a change, which is quite frankly something new and quite a challenge lol. However things will turn out, especially next year, I promise that I won’t fade away. You all mean too much to me for that. Thank you all for reading and have a great weekend.