And so this is it. Day 100 of this year’s 100 day project. It’s my third time taking part and without a doubt it’s been the hardest one I’ve done. The time has flown but as the time has gone on it’s been harder and harder to stay motivated and stick to my one simple rule – to write everyday and publish is somewhere.
In the end I opted to publish everything here on my blog so everything was in one place (though some or a shorter version were cross posted on Instagram), but I think that made it harder. Whatever I wrote had to be worthy of a blog post. A caption for an Instagram would’ve been far easier in a lot of ways.
Some days I had a clear thing to write about, whilst some were inspired by something that had happened that day. Others I found myself late in the evening wondering what the hell I had something to say about. As someone who normally has something to say on everything (even if I choose not to say it) that felt weird. I guess putting it out there for all to read prevented some of the words in my head coming out. It was aslo definitely a case in some instances of not being able to articulate what was in my head in a coherent manner. I have many unfinished drafts or notes of things to write about that haven’t, and possibly never will, see the light of day.
On the flip side, I’ve enjoyed having a deadline to work to. Writing something and putting it out there without having time to reread it 50 million times and overthink everyone’s possible reaction. I wasn’t really writing it for anyone else anyway so who cared what anyone else might think.
One of the big things I realised is how much I rely on photographs to speak on my behalf. Yes I can write something reasonably well but I find my photographs tell a lot more than I could ever put into words. This meant that a number of things haven’t been written as I’ve still not sorted through the photos. In other cases having to have the photos to go with some words has forced me to not allow yet more photos just go into the ever growing archive. I’ve finally set up a site to better share photos beyond the few that I share on Instagram.
I need to go back and look at the posts I’ve written as I’ve forgotten about much of what I’ve written, but I know I’ve enjoyed capturing how I was feeling at a particular moment in time (something I’ve got out of the habit of doing for myself with journalling), capturing memories from the past and sharing successes as they’ve happened.
I hoped by today I’d have a better idea of how I wanted to share with people (and for myself) in the future as I know I’m finding Instagram a bit of a chore despite having used it for over 14 (!!) years. I’ve kinda considered it a bit of a photo diary but as the algorithm has changed I’ve not enjoyed it as much as I used to. Also I fear of the day it disappears and my memories will go with it. Why do we rely on others to look after our stuff when we could look after it somewhere safe ourselves?!!
One thing I will say is that it’s a good job the general election wasn’t called earlier in these 100 days. Eight years ago today I left the civil service. For 11 years I wasn’t allowed to have a public opinion on what was happening in government and I still find it weird that I can now, but if ever there was a time to be vocal about what these politicians are doing, apparently in the best interests of it’s citizens, it’s now.
Throughout these 100 days it’s been great seeing others partaking in the 100 day projects – it’s one of the reasons I do it alongside the official @dothe100dayproject timeline – especially having Adam also writing something everyday, albeit something shorter and its not something he‘s shared anywhere. I’ll admit I’ve not paid as much attention this year to other people’s projects or contributed to the community as much as in reality I didn’t need this extra challenge in my life right now. I overcommitted but didn’t realise until I was deep into it. Other things have suffered as a result and there were more than a few days when I wanted to quit. But I’m stubborn so I was determined to see it through, and that I have done.
But now it’s done. I know I will keep writing and sharing, but definitely not as frequently as I have here. I’ll revisit some of those drafts I started. I’ll probably post here more than I used to so that I don’t just let everything sit in Meta’s hands on Instagram and Facebook.
For years I keep saying I want to keep my own blog and maybe this project has been the instigator for finally making that happen. I guess time will tell.