A Special 100th Blog Post

     Nearly 10 years ago, a high school teenager in Virginia wanted to create a blog filled with song parodies, including ones of John Lennon's "Imagine" or "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. The blog was titled "Bringing the Wheat", as Wheat is said blogger's middle name. After a few posts though, the blog fizzled out and became mostly forgotten. Flash forward to a few years ago, and that blog was resurrected and re-branded into "Random Thoughts with Will". Flash forward to today, and here I am writing my 100th post for that blog. What a ride it has been! 

    For today's post, I wanted to do a tribute "100th Post". After all, the 100th Day of school was a day we celebrated in elementary school and TV shows celebrate their 100th episode with entering syndication reruns. In addition to that, this can serve as an early celebration of the blog's 10 Year Anniversary. Feel free to call this post "Random thoughts with Will about 'Random Thoughts with Will'". But I digress...

    If you are reading this post or have read any one of the previous 99, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to read these posts, and I hope you enjoyed them or got something out of them. I know I've really enjoyed writing them and have gotten a lot out of them myself. That's one thing that has always kept me going with these blog posts: knowing that as long as it is something that I enjoy doing and am getting something out of it, I want to keep writing and publishing posts. A fun exercise that I've even had is coming up with a list of potential blog topics to write about. As you may have figured out, a lot of times the blog posts involve something that's going on in my life or are a reflection of current events. I guess you could say it's been me sharing a piece of my life with you. It's why I talk about my faith, my experiences here in Houston, my experiences growing up in Virginia, going to college at Baylor, struggles I've had or am facing, lessons I'm learning, and of course, references to TV shows I enjoy or grew up enjoying. It's an intersection of it all. 

    While I feel obligated to say that I like all of these posts the same, there are some that I have enjoyed writing more than others. For instances, I've enjoyed writing the "Life Lessons Learned In (Year)" posts. Life Lessons Learned in 2020 should be particularly fascinating given all that's unfolded this year. In general, I've gotten a lot out of the reflection posts. Then again, writing involves a lot of reflecting. And of course, tribute posts, such as ones that I've done for Spongebob Squarepants. As far as one-off posts go, "Wrong Road", "Outside Looking In", and "Through the Valley" all come to mind. Still, if a post reaches published, it means it was a topic that I felt strongly enough to write a whole post about (there have been drafts I ended up not publishing for this very reason). 

    One of the beauties of writing is being able to look back on previous pieces and see how you felt in that moment or what you were going through. In a way, past writings can serve as a time capsule. I've found that it can be encouraging to read those pieces and see how far I've come. On the other hand, it can be convicting seeing the maturity I had in that moment and wanting to have that same maturity and wisdom. That's definitely been the case with writing these blog posts, particularly with the "older" posts (ones from 2017). If you enjoy writing yourself, I encourage you to do the same. You'll be glad that you did years later. 

    Given that most blog posts feature reflecting and looking back, I did want to do some looking ahead, as well as looking at the present I know where I've been, but where am I today? Where I am going? In the literal sense, I'm at my apartment in Houston. Recently, it dawned on me that I've been in Houston longer than I was at Baylor. That blew my mind. It doesn't feel like I've been living here that long (three and a half years now). And though we are navigating this pandemic and uncertain times, I know that I'm where I belong and that God has me here for a reason.

    When I think about where "Random Thoughts with Will" is right now,  I know it's in a good place. There have been a few periods this year where I wasn't writing in here. I wanted to, but never seemed to have the energy or enthusiasm for any topic. I'm glad to say that I have had that lately - if nothing else, it's been reflected by having posts in here on a more consistent basis. I never want to put too much pressure on myself or force myself to write a post. As is the case with life, we do go through periods and seasons where we may need to take a break from something or don't have the same energy and enthusiasm that we normally do -- and that's okay. That being said, I'm glad that I have had that energy and enthusiasm again. 

    As far as where "Random Thoughts with Will" is going and what to expect moving forward, well, there are some different types of posts and topics I may explore. I may do some more posts detailing how I got into some of my interests, such as watching NASCAR or shopping at T.J. Maxx. While I can't envision myself ever creating a full-on travel blog, I may write a post or two about some of the adventures and trips I've been on (pictures included, of course) or for any future trips that I go on (this is largely dependent upon COVID-19 though). For the most part though, you can expect more posts with my thoughts and reflections about life and all that it entails. I wouldn't want it any other way. 

    I'm thankful to be able to write in here on a consistent basis. I'm thankful to be able to share my experiences with you, too. God's led me to and through a lot in my life -- and I know that He's doing that each day, refining me to make me more like Him. And I hope that is reflected in my blog posts moving forward. 

    Thank you for taking the time to read through this post (and others), as well as for your words of support and encouragement. It's meant a lot to me and I really appreciate the kind words. I look forward to what God has in store for this blog and my life moving forward. For now though, here's to 100 blog posts!