It happens in our lives we start a journey with one purpose and destination in our minds, but as we proceed the path of the trip shows its bends and visages we knew nothing about. Sometimes we go for a newer pathway (other than the one initially planned) just out of our curiosity, at other times we are not left with any other option except to follow the new tract. In either cases it is the trip that starts taking us where we had no plans to go initially. This unfolds a new face of life to us. Sometimes we get the key to unlock our dreams that we had buried in our hearts.

My blogging journey is an example of what John Steinbeck said. I have been in the world of social media blogging for the last two years. However, it is not just this period I wanted to be a blogger. I wanted to be a writer since ever. How I can land my memory into my childhood, I can see a girl writing one thing or the other. As I grew up, I never relied on the already prepared notes (that was the ,prevailing trend of my academic system and still is), instead I always prepared my own. The writer in me showed herself in speeches that were delivered at various academic levels. I did some creative writing too and a lot of poetry since I was 11 years old, but that was not in English but in my mother tongue (i.e. Urdu). Nevertheless, I never knew how to publish them. They are unpublished, except one of the short stories that was published in my college magazine Anyways, it was the story of the writer in me.

When I went to the university, I got better opportunity for writing. As my academic course, I learned research writing. It presented to me the ethics and needs of a quality content. However, whatever I wrote there was not published elsewhere except to the files that were submitted to the teachers, of course.

Then…. It happened…. I had to get marry. I did; and became a house wife. Many dreams died, but becoming a writer was still alive. I tried to figure out how to be a blogger online, that would bring me some monetary benefits too. I researched online, yet couldn't find anything that was helpful to me. I found some methods to create self blogs, but how would I monetize it and how it would bring me some money, I had no idea. I didn't have much time to be active online, due to many other off-line duties and lack of resources. Moreover, I had no idea that there exists something like social media blogging. I thought blogging could only be done on some intellectual, scientific or literary topic. I ended up my search with doing freelancing for someone. He gave me plenty of time to finish each write up. That's why the work suited me, else the monetary benefit I got from it was quite low (is there a more intense word than low? 🤔. If there is, tell me, please.)

As a freelancer , I kept on writing research papers and manuals. Then I saw my publications published under some international university, but I was not mentioned as the author of it as I had done that writing as a freelancer. I felt low and disappointed. My writings were eligible enough to be published in international universities, and I didn't know how I can do it myself. What I was getting in the name of monetary benefit were a few pennies. I took a break and went on in search of better earning options.

By the time, I was convinced that I would never be able to make any name for me, nor any audience. My work and my name would not be recognized together, but at least I should have got a better payment.

There is one thing worth mentioning. Deep inside my heart I had a desire to be recognized as a writer, and be in a system where I can feel the same as used to feel during my academic days (in an atmosphere of intellectualism pacifying my soul, filled with opportunity to express creativity. I wanted to go back to a place where I would be appreciated for the talents I have). I didn't know how I could find this all while maintaining the status of a house wife living within the boundaries of the home most of the time. Nevertheless I prayed to God to find me some way to quench the thirst of my soul.

In the year 2020, I got my first smartphone. I started exploring some other online work that would bring me better monetary benefits than the ones I was getting as a freelance research writer. I looked for online jobs. After going through many (we know there are scams too), I was like there is nothing of my type. I was about to sign for a captcha-solving job 😲 when God started displaying His plans for me.
I was searching for the jobs in Facebook groups. The day I had finally decided to join the captcha-solving job I found someone replying to my comment that he knew about an online work that pays. He said I could earn there if my English is good. It was a criteria I met so I gave it a try. I still didn't know it was about blogging. Funny enough, the inviter also didn't know either it was blogging 😅. He was there just to spam and earn whatever he could. He invited me to earn the money for referrals. Anyways, it was my accidental arrival to a centralized crypto currency based blogging platform, Upternnd (it no more exists).

I started exploring the place and in a couple of days I realized “Oh! That's the kind of place I wanted to be at.” However, I was like a new born baby who knows nothing about the world he is sent to. The only thing I knew was to avoid plagiarism and spamming, as it was stated in the rules of the website. I knew quite well what plagiarism and spamming meant (I learnt that in my research writing course during graduation), so I never did that. Besides, I had no idea how to grow and earn well on the platform.

I hardly got a couple of upvotes on many of my initial posts. I was disappointed to see this. I thought perhaps I was not publishing the right things. The icing on the cake was put by my referrer. When I asked him how he manages to earn well and why I wasn't earning good, he told me to compare his posts with mine. Lol. What he was publishing were the posts with a picture of flowers and a few words of hello hi. Full spammy posts…! Haaaah🤔 I even accepted that these kind of posts are the right way to earn here (the platform was full of such posts and I saw them earning well). Anyways, I couldn't convince me for doing this kind of stuff. I kept on going with my efforts and disappointments 😐…..

When I started connected to people in the comment section, I came across a struggling blogger @ayesha-malik. I recognized her struggles as I noticed she was publishing daily while her level was not growing. I went to her DM and asked her about her blogging experience. She guided me to comment on the posts of guardians (guardians were akin to whales on Hive- people with power of bigger upvotes) and take part in the contests. (Do you remember that conversation, Ayesha? 😍)

Here, I would like to tell something about my state of mind. I felt the same as feels a bird in cage which has been prisoned for a long time. Despite having a brilliant academic career, staying away from the outer world made me lose my self-confidence. My self-esteem was down and I was surrounded by unknown fears. I wanted to fly but my fears stopped me. I came out of my burrow, looked at the things, desired for them and then again hid in the burrow.
There was a lady on the platform, Tiger Lily (@dreemsteem). She was amazingly creative. Her post always contained a warning for spammers. I visited her posts but I thought I would never be able to comment on her posts (can you now imagine what kind of a mental state I was in?)

Tiger Lily ran a teaching platform for blogging. It was named as Uptrennd University. I was fascinated by the release of Dean's list by the university. It contained the posts of the students who earned the Dean's badge. I used to see the posts of University Students with various badges displayed at the end. The quality of posts was good. This all raised in me the desire of getting admission in the university. Those days the university announced for a blogging marathon for 3 weeks. I desperately wanted to join it but I was very much afraid to go on for this. I thought I would never be able to manage the courses along with my kids and home chores. The desire was increasing but the fears and insecurities were not decreasing. They were persistently there.

God had His plans for me. He sent an angel my way. She is @sofs-su. She was a diligent UU student. We had an interaction on her posts. Then she came to my posts. Afterwards, she asked me if I was interested in joining the marathon. (She was a coach to be in the upcoming marathon) I told her about my confused mental state. She didn't pressurize me to join, but I think she sensed I was in a desperate need of help and encouragement. That's why she made me think of to give it a try. The truth is if I didn't meet her those days, I wouldn't be continuing my blogging journey this far.

Any ways, I joined the marathon as a racer of Sofs. It was officially of 3 weeks but Sofs taught me for 4 weeks (one week before the marathon had begun). Those 4 weeks were the hardest time of the year for me. Publishing three posts a day and engaging with others while having all the responsibilities of home and 2 kids was not at all easy. I went sleep deprived. I even had to face disturbances in my marital life. Those four weeks exhausted me completely. Here, I would like to appreciate my coach, Sofs, for her selfless efforts she put on me. Out of my insecurities, I often behaved like a child who cries often because the fear that she couldn't do this or that. Sofs not only tutored me but also counselled.

After the marathon, the students were to be selected for the official course of the university. For this purpose, the aspirants had to publish a post with application for admission. I was so exhausted by the marathon. I had thought I wouldn't be continuing in the University; so I didn't apply for the admission. From my side, I had finished my journey.

But again, there happened a miracle …..

When the result for applicants was announced, my name was among the ones who got the admission in the University. It was astonishing how I got the admission without applying for it. (Quite later, I found out that the chancellor, @dreemsteem, had added my name there thinking that I might have missed to submit the application post. So it was a mistake from her side to add my name. ***When Devine has plans, such mistakes do happen****). I had to rethink about my decision of quitting my journey with UU. Finally I decided to be in the University.

After it, started a new phase of my blogging career. I had overcome many of my fears. I learnt there several ways for successful blogging. I moved forward with flying colors, and earned 9 Dean's badges in a row in those courses. There were several other badges I gathered for various reasons.

Not only blogging, I also learnt to create videos (vlogging)

It was during the marathon time when I learnt to use canva. Sofs taught me to use the canva app for graphic designing. She didn't ask me if I wanted to learn it or not. She just said she would be teaching me, and she did. I was someone who was quite reluctant to use technology (*simply because I thought I couldn't understand it). If Sofs hadn't taught me at that time, I don't think I would be able to work with it even now. See where I have reached in using the app. Here is the certificate that I received from Canva.

Though I had started doing quite better at the platform, some of my conflicts still didn't resolve. Just as @prayzz told in his post Continuous writer I had difficulty selecting a topic for writing. I was too hard on me. I thought that blogging was only about writing something very intellectual, thoughtful or creative. I used to discard topics one after the other. About some topics I felt I didn't have enough content to write; so I didn't write anything at all.

The site uptrennd was closed. Now we were like homeless in the blogging world. It was the time for a new beginning. The UU team guided us about Hove. They provided us support and delegations to begin our journey here. I, with other fellow, joined Hive in May 2021.
Though I didn't remain consistent in publishing posts here due to many other responsibilities in the offline world, yet my journey on Hive is full of joyful experiences.

After exploring various communities on Hive, I realized I had much more to write than I think of. I felt a bit freer and more resourceful. However, still it was difficult for me to start writing on the topics I thought I didn't have enough content to write on. I wrote on only those topics about which I was sure that I could write about 500 words.

It was the we are alive community that helped me unleash my potential completely. I have already written the details in this post.
After it, I became unstoppable. I felt free to fly

I am now flooded with ideas and topics to write. Literally, I have more topics to write on than the time available for writing. I have to choose which one to drop and which to write on. DCC is another tag that often gives me inspiration to write on a certain topic.

During my time here on Hive I have moved up several ladders. I am now an active curator for VYB Curation project. I started working as a tester team in @dreemport. Today I am a staff (curation guild) of the Dreemport.

Over all, the Hive added a lot to my growth as a blogger as well as a personality. It freed me from my chains and help me be more thoughtful and insightful about my surroundings.

Transitions I faced as a blogger

⚘The first transition that I faced was from being a Trenndian to a Hiver. The story of which is already told above.
⚘ The second transition is from writing on paper to writing on keypad. In the beginning, I first usedto write on paper than typed it on the editor by laptop. It took more time to write a post. Later I started writing directly on the editor.
⚘Third transition is from laptop to mobile. In the beginning, I used to write on laptop. My typing speed on the mobile was quite slow. However, when my laptop started showing glitches, I had to use my mobile for typing. It provides me the ease of writing anytime, anywhere. However, I still would prefer a PC over the mobile if I really have an option.

LAST WORDS

My blogging journey is filled with stories of struggles, self fights, selflessness, uncertainties and miracles. It fits into the description of what Paulo Colheo said

when you want something, the whole universe conspires in order for you to achieve it.

Before leaving this post I would like to thank @dreemsteem and her teem's unfailing support throughout the journey. There is another person whom I am really grateful for supporting me. He is @zuerich. He provided me with a delegation of 900 HP several months ago. There is none of my post which he doesn't come to curate.