Over the past few days, I’ve been absorbed in the blog—tweaking cache plugins, adjusting the theme, and spending far more time and energy on it than I expected. Still, having this space feels worthwhile. It gives me something I can focus on simply because I find it interesting. Not long ago, I had actually considered giving it up.
Tonight I went through the full list of posts on the site and reread things I had written years ago. Some of them felt strangely unfamiliar, to the point that I could hardly believe I was the one who wrote them. Reading those old pieces made me wonder what I was thinking back then, and how I managed to put those thoughts into words in the first place.
Maybe that is one of the best reasons to keep writing. Years from now—maybe even decades later—it will be interesting to look back at these words and catch a glimpse of who I was, how I lived, and what was on my mind at the time.
And when my children are older and able to read, they’ll be able to see for themselves what their father’s life once looked like. I won’t have to reduce it all to a rough summary told from memory. Sometimes I want to know more about what my own parents’ lives were like in earlier years, but they have forgotten many of the details, and what remains is often hard for them to explain clearly. That has always felt like a small regret to me.
But there is another side to all this. It’s easy to get so caught up in one thing that everything else starts to drift. There’s a saying that becoming too attached to distractions can make a person lose sight of their goals. Right now there are only a little over forty days left before the architect certification exam, and I’ve gone through the book only once.
I already know how difficult the advanced software exam is. Without serious preparation, passing it will be hard. This time I haven’t treated it with enough importance. I haven’t invested enough time or energy, and compared with my last round of exam prep, what I’ve put in so far is probably not even one-tenth as much.
Since I’ve decided to take the exam, then I should commit to it properly. Starting tomorrow, I’ll make time to study during the workday whenever I can and aim for at least one hour. After work, I’ll set aside another fixed hour for reading. Starting tomorrow, the blog goes to the side. The time needs to go into studying instead.
I noticed tonight that during my last preparation period, from January to May, I didn’t publish a single post.