Finding My Niche

It’s December ya’ll! How is it December? We’re barreling towards a new year and that calls for introspection. Fresh eyes. New outlooks!

Finding my niche on this platform has felt like a near impossible task. When I started this blog I just wanted to write. I wanted to practice. I wanted to share. I had gone through a miscarriage and was newly pregnant with O. Being a mom was my focus at the time so that influenced my writing. It wasn’t really for me though. Don’t get me wrong, my focus in life is still very much on my kids but the mommy blog world very quickly lost it’s lustre.The same can be said for homeschooling. I see these brand new homeschoolers diving into blogging or social media geared completely towards homeschooling and I don’t know how they do it. For one thing, I definitely have imposter syndrome. Even though I have 7 years of experience under my belt I still don’t feel qualified to instruct others on how to do it. For a second thing, just commenting on parenting or homeschooling related topics online can feel like walking through a minefield of cattiness and narcissism. You have to really choose your group well, and they can be very hard to find. I’ve followed and unfollowed a million pages, blogs, and accounts on those topics. Joined and unjoined many many groups.There are so many different styles and plenty of gatekeeping and extremism in each one to go around. I don’t care for confrontation. I’m not going to premise every single post with 85 disclaimers about the topic potentially not applying to every single person and their particular situation. I’m here for a good time not a long time. Let me live my life!

All of that being said, it’s a bit of a cop out. Obviously, I could deal with all of that if I really wanted to but I don’t. Partially I don’t like online negativity tinging any part of my “real life” and it’s hard to separate the two when the topics are related to your children. Parenting is a job that will change drastically over the years. If I’m doing it right it will never end but grow and change through my entire life. Our homeschooling journey has a firm expiration date. These are but seasons in my life. I still love sharing bits and pieces of that part of my life but it can’t be my niche.

I’m passionate about my children’s lives and education but are those topics my passion in life? Kind of, but not in that way. What are the things I love and enjoy outside of my children? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself lately. I’ve always had a love for writing, story telling, researching, sharing, and teaching. When I was little I thought I’d grow up to be a teacher. Those are things I still enjoy and why I got into blogging in the first place. But blogs need a focus, and that’s not something I’m good at. What to write, what to share? What are my actual interests. The ones that don’t wax and wain, come and go. I love art and entertainment. I love nature and animals. I love fashion and beauty products. I’ve always had an interest in health and wellness. Those topics do lend themselves to a type of lifestyle blog, but I still need to sort of what I want that to look like. Finding your nice isn’t about figuring out what you like and then making it look like everyone else. That’s not the vibe.

Moving forward I’ll be changing things up a bit, moving things around. Seeing how things fit. Figuring out what to keep and what to KonMari up out of here.

As ever, I hope you’ll tag along for the ride!

xxo

C