Somewhere in the dark months of 2018 after a long day of work. On the international train from Berlin, between Deventer and Apeldoorn I came up with an idea for a blog post. I’ve tried to start my own blog before, but I fell into the “build your blogging platform from scratch” trap every single time.

This time I decided to change it. I’ll just launch a default WordPress site, and publish my writing. I can always change my platform once I gain momentum.

And after some days of writing, editing, and running it past coworkers, my first blog post was published. Why you should place your code on an open-source platform. The start of a journey.

Luckily over time, publishing became easier, and now 5 years and 71 blog posts later. It’s time for a little anniversary celebration.

My favorites

If I think about all the ups in 5 years of blogging, there are too many to count. I’ve had some amazing experiences. But there were a few that stood out:

Not to forget the amazing people I’ve met. Who inspired me, taught me many skills, and introduced me to several Slack workgroups with inspiring leaders worldwide.

The hardest parts

I don’t know if you’ve noticed. But I am not consistent. Write 5 blog posts in a month, to write only one in 5 months. I like writing, the hardest part for me is to find topics to write about.

It can be frustrating when I’m in a “I want to write but have no idea what to write about” mood. I read books on writing and tried several approaches, but I haven’t found the perfect solution yet

With my writing I intend to teach something, hopefully something you didn’t know before. The struggle in finding a suitable topic is usually in finding something that I take for granted, but myself from 2/3 years ago might not have known. This resulted in me changing my style. From in-depth guides to shorter articles for SEO to just writing what’s on my mind.

The future

Of course, I’m going to keep creating content. I love writing and will keep blogging (possibly inconsistent). There are however a few areas that have piqued my interest which I might explore in the future:

  • YouTube, creating video content in the Engineering Management niche
  • Public speaking, either joining meetups or guest lectures in schools
  • Writing an (e)book.

Thank you!

A big thank you for reading this (and my other) posts. In the last 5 years, blogging has gifted me things I would have never anticipated. I learned skills I would never have used in my day-to-day job, I’ve met interesting and great people, and it has opened doors for me.

Besides thanking you as a reader, I’d like to thank everyone around me who has been supportive and given me the little nudge to create. Without all of you, this would probably not have happened.