100th post!

I'm finally feeling better. I've had the flu for the past week and it pretty much knocked me on my ass. I really can't believe that it's my 100th post! I've been writing on here since last June and it's really been great to express myself and hear what you all have had to say. I really appreciate all of your comments and reads and I hope to only grow from here.

For this special post I wanted to write about a conference I attended on Wednesday. One of the speakers runs the blog Tiny Buddha and gave some really awesome tips on how to write. I took special interest in her pointers because I want to connect more with the readers on this blog and I want to work at a magazine after college. Here are her three tips for writing a more personal blog:

1. Share yourself authentically. Up until this point I have mainly been summarizing my everyday life, which is fine, but I'd really like to dig deep and reveal what I'm thinking and make what I have to say unique. A person leads a community and I want to be that leader.

2. Release your need to control the conversation. Instead of controlling what people are saying, introduce the subject and let things flow from there. Too often writers try to steer their writings in certain ways that only they can understand or appreciate. I want to write something and let you all decide how to interpret things.

3. Focus on providing value rather than growth. So far I've been chronicling my growth through college and defining myself as an adult and a gay man. I will still definitely focus on growth but I also want to write on what these discoveries mean to me. Instead of simply recapping what is happening, I'd like to explain how I am using my experiences to grow and ultimately define myself.

I also had the pleasure of listening to Hank Wasiak, co-founder of The Concept Farm, and he had three inspiring quotes that I want to strive to live my life by. They are simple yet can make profound differences in how you manage yourself.

"Forget perfection, pursue progress."
"Admire openly and often. Who is on your Mt. Rushmore?"
"Find your mighty cause."

Too often I find myself striving only for perfection and I am disappointed when I can't achieve it. Dreaming of perfection is great but I want to focus my attention on progress and how I am growing and how to continue to positively progress through life.

I thought this post, being my 100th, was the perfect place to make a few changes in how I write. I am going to try to implement these new ideas into my writing and hopefully I'll be able to truly connect on a new level with you all and all of you will get a better understanding of who I am.

Nick