Why Don’t You Blog About It?

Every student has experienced this moment: handing your paper over to the classmate you’ve sat next to for the past month. You probably don’t know anything other than their first name, and yet their eyes run over the words you’ve carefully, or maybe haphazardly, put together with the purpose of telling you everything wrong with them. It’s a nerve-wracking moment, but for college sophomore Chloe Yoon, this is an everyday experience. Chole is the owner of a blog she calls Thinking Thoughts. 

“My blog isn’t about anything specific,” said Yoon, “rather, it’s more about any thought that I feel strongly enough to put out there.”

Yoon has been running her blog for one year now, but putting her work on a public platform for others to read can still be difficult. 

“I think it’s hard to know that people may read your words and have an immediate distaste or disgust. I also think it’s important to know that there will never be a message that everyone will 100% agree on,” she said.

The novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is what started Yoon’s journey. 

“In the book the author has a blog series that made me feel heard and inspired. I think that a lot of people share more common thoughts than you would think, and sharing them to the public normalizes it and makes the people who don’t feel heard, heard,” Yoon said. 

Despite Yoon’s original inspiration, starting her blog proved difficult. The vulnerability of publishing her work on a public platform weighed on her, but she was able to push past her fears. 

“While sharing my writing has always made me feel super vulnerable, I think it’s worth it to make myself vulnerable so other people don’t have to feel vulnerable. I wanted to bring light to the sensitive thoughts that come across a person’s mind, but they usually don’t give it the time of day,” she said.

Chloe’s strong resolve for expressing her voice helped her overcome the fear of criticism. 

“My role as a writer isn’t to please everyone, it’s to write to please myself. If other people find pleasure in my writing, I am beyond grateful and happy. But I also understand that isn’t the ultimate goal” Yoon said. 

This doesn’t mean that running a blog is easy.

“Keeping up with my blog can be hard to do, especially if there are times where I don’t feel particularly inspired or motivated,” Yoon said. When Chloe feels unmotivated, however, she reminds herself of her blog’s purpose. 

“When I don’t feel like writing or I get too lazy, I remind myself that even writing the most random thoughts can take you somewhere and make you realize things about yourself that you never even saw… ‘til you wrote,” she said.

For Yoon, even random thoughts can guide her to blog posts with tremendous meaning. 

“Recently, I’ve been inspired by my identity, as it was an aspect of myself I rarely explored. Being at Elon, my identity embarrassed me a lot and made me feel uncomfortable. After giving myself time to learn to appreciate myself, I became fascinated with what I was capable of when I embraced my identity. I was more confident, and I had a desire to make others feel the same way.”

For anyone looking to start their own blog, Yoon says, “Do it, do it, do it. Yes, it’s going to be weird knowing that other people are reading your inner thoughts. Yes, you will overthink every sentence and word choice. Yes, it’s going to be a little bit of a commitment. But ultimately, being more open and confident in yourself and your ideas is what everyone needs, and blogging kind of forces you to do just that.”

Creating a blog, despite its importance to Yoon, was entirely outside of her comfort zone. And yet, blogging “has also followed me from going inside my comfort zone to outside and being totally okay with that transition,” she said. 

“I love owning a blog because it’s mine,” Yoon said. “There are no rules or expectations.” 

Check out Chloe Yoon’s blog here.