A little reflection on this year, this blog, and my birthday.

    Hey there, friends! I'm Jonathan, and today is my birthday. As such, I'm going to deviate from my schedule a little bit with this week's post as well as next week's, as that will be Christmas, but after that you can expect the same content from me as you normally would. I'm just going to talk candidly about my experiences here from this past year, and some of my overall inspiration for what I've been putting together on this blog, as well as some future aspirations. It's really weird for me to talk about myself in the same detail that I talk about theme parks or video games, so this will probably be a shorter post than most are, but I'll do my best!

    I'm going to be real here, 2020 has been a really off year for everyone. So many cancelled plans, so many friends missed, so many times that we've all said, "I can't wait until we're able to see each other in person again." Truly, it's been a bad year for so many people that I don't even need to express not being able to do all the things that I wanted to this year. Everyone has missed out on at least something due to the global pandemic, and that's just how this year has been. I hit a point where I just wasn't happy with anything that I was doing because I just didn't know what it was that I wanted, and that's when I really was able to look at what it was that I was interested in. For this post, I'm going to be a little selfish and try to look on the silver linings of the dark cloud that this year has been, and hopefully, you'll be able to think of a few positive things that you've been able to experience, even in this year of global shut down.

    I have always had a lot of unnecessary information on video games and insights that weren't really going anywhere other than me just dumping them on some friends who were probably getting tired of listening. I thought about this blog that I started over a year ago now, decided to focus more on my writing and here we are. I've finally started something that I've been interested in for quite some time, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep it going for quite a while. Writing has always been a strong suit for me, and it wasn't until very recently that I decided to hopefully throw my hat into the arena of games journalism. Though I am obviously not successful or anything in that field yet, I feel like I am definitely off to a nice start, and I'm more proud of myself for it than anything else that I've done in a while. It's a weird feeling to be putting out all of this content like this, and I genuinely hope that all of you are enjoying the ride along with me. Obviously, I'm able to speak more to people who already know a little bit about the products and attractions that I'm talking about in my posts, but I'm trying to appeal to the general audience, getting them interested in topics that they may have never known about otherwise. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm talking down to people, I try to speak with the knowledge I have, and hopefully I'm able to spread that while also making the posts enjoyable to read.

    I started the Self-Proclaimed Dreamer to mainly express my unspoken thoughts and ideas about different things, and I'm still trying to do that, though it's not as personal or emotional as that idea sounds. I'm much more trying to improve my writing skills and writing about things that I know a lot about, hopefully developing my writing voice to a much more consistent tone as I keep going. I think I'm definitely getting better and I hope that you'll all continue reading the blog as I keep growing into a better and more consistent writer. 

    As I said, today is my birthday, which always forces me to take stock of all that I have accomplished in the past year, as well as think about all of my friends. I went into this year thinking that it could be when I finally get my ducks in a row and begin to get some job experience, but then many jobs closed down along with the world. Thanks to this blog, I've been given an opportunity to build up some much needed experience for something that I will hopefully be able to do in a semi-professional level at some point in the future, while also feeling connected with more friends and family members in this time whenever socialization is dangerous to the well being of others. 

    To finish off this admittedly repetitive and self indulgent post, I just have to thank all of my friends who have stood beside me over the years. Even if we haven't talked in a long time, your friendship and support really means so much more to me than I can even express, and I consider myself extremely lucky to know all of you. I really appreciate all of the feedback I've gotten from these different posts, but even if you haven't told me anything about it, I hope you've enjoyed what you've read so far, and I'm looking forward to many more posts that I'll be writing over the next year. I always love my birthday every year, something always just feels special about it, so I've tried to make that feeling carry over to my blog today and I hope it'll continue on for Christmas next week as well.

    Thanks so much for reading, everyone! Like I said, I'm so grateful to all of you and I hope you all have a great week. I'll talk to you next Friday for a little cup of Christmas cheer!