Goodbye for Now: Ending My Daily Blog After 2,015 Posts

On the first day of a ceramics course, the teacher split the class into two groups. One group will be graded on the quantity of work, and the other will be graded on the quality of work. However, at the end of the semester, when it came to grading time, the best quality work came from the group that was graded based on quantity. Quantity leads to quality.

Inspired by that story, I made a promise to myself on January 1st 2020, to write every single day. Five and a half years and 2,015 blog posts later, I haven’t missed a single day. But now, it’s time to bring that chapter to a close.

Writing daily has been the best decision I’ve ever made.

I met one of my best friends after posting a blog on LinkedIn.

I included my blog on my resume, and I spent the entire interview talking about writing. I got the offer the next day. A job I still have four years later.

Writing pushed me to move to New York City, the greatest writing city in the world. There, I started a writing community (shoutout OTWC) and met so many inspiring writers.

I’ve received plenty of emails and DMs from both friends and strangers who I inspired to start writing.

And of course, I improved immensely as a writer. I built creative discipline. I honed my voice. I learned about “show, don’t tell”.

But here’s the thing: quantity creates quality, only up to a certain point.

Most people probably have 10,000 hours of writing experience from iMessages, Emails, and Instagram DMs, but that doesn’t mean they can write like Mary Oliver or Ted Chiang. What separates a writer from the average person isn’t how much they write, it’s how much they rewrite. Editing. Revising. Refining. That’s where real writing emerges. And with a daily blog, I write a lot, but I don’t rewrite a lot.

Call this an obituary, or maybe a love letter. It’s a goodbye to a project I showed up for every day, for more than 2000 days consecutively. A project that changed my life.

But I’m not saying goodbye to writing. If anything, I’m doubling down. I want to write slower. Rewrite more. Spend more time on fewer, better pieces.

Which brings me to my next project: Fit Check: Words that make you feel seen. Stories on growing up, dressing up, and searching for belonging.

You’ll read essays like “On Leaving Your Hometown Dentist,” “Lessons Learned from a Pair of $300 Jeans,” and “May I Recommend Side Seating at the Restaurant?”

If you want to keep up with my writing, you can subscribe to Fit Check here.

Here’s to the next chapter 🍻!