BEDA #1 - 2016 Edition!

It's beda time! That is to say, Blog Every Day in April! Every April I use this to kickstart my blog for a few months and this year is no exception.

For the first time I'm ever, I feel as though my blog, as sporadic as its updates are at the moment, has an actual purpose and place in the blogging world. The past year has introduced me to so many vloggers in the nerdy, gaming, geeky world, and everyone is so wonderful and creative and interesting. I discovered the blog culture relatively recently - I had a Livejournal for years, of course, but it's only been the past few years that I've seen a world of blogging beyond diary posts and brain-fart rambles. My first encounter with the blog world was through the many, many lovely lifestyle blogs I found. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and found incredible inspiration from them, but they didn't really share a lot in common with me or my blog. They were young women, mostly beautiful and American, who had husbands and children and faith. They shared their journeys and adventures and I loved (still love) reading their blogs, learning about their daily lives, but it wasn't a community I felt I could really take part in. My day to day life involves video games, cosplay, going to conventions and selling art. I still live with my parents, and I'm hardly a young go-getter in the exciting blogging world.

The trouble is, if you try to find gaming blogs, for example, they're few and far between, and the ones that do exist aren't about lifestyle or the daily lives of gamers - they're dedicated game blogs, with reviews and guides, and the geek blogs I found all had very dedicated themes - geek clothing, geek cooking, for example. All fun to read, of course, but few of them felt like places I could reach out to as a blogger myself.

But then I sort of fell into a bunch of communities that bridged the gap. I found whole forums dedicated to geek lifestyle bloggers. They covered a broad spectrum - from gamers, to Disney nerds, to cosplayers and, of course, crafters and artists like myself. It was completely eye opening to me! To be a blogger meant I didn't have to be a mother, or married, or fashionable (though I like to think I look a little bit awesome most of the time!) It meant I had people I could connect with and share content with, and honestly that has been so liberating and fun.

I don't blog or engage in the blogging world as much as I'd like to, and that's something I really want to work on fixing. I think having an actual schedule would go a long way to helping that, which is why I'm hoping BEDA will be a happy kick up the bum for me. Nothing forces you to be imaginative like a tight deadline! I'm really looking forward to trying a whole month of daily blogging with you guys. I hope this blog can join the ranks of those I've fallen in love with over the past year, and I really hope you all enjoy the trip along the way!