Sunday, 1 May 2016

ZOMBIE


Finally...April has come to an end. Along with monthly salaries being credited to accounts, April 30 also heralds the end of the A to Z Challenge - April 2016. This was the first time I had ever taken up this challenge. The challenge brought forth feelings of joy and satisfaction, as well as pain and frustration. I'm glad I was able to complete it. I'm not sure that I'm ever gonna take up this challenge ever again, considering the fact that it has taken a toll on my sleep and emotional well-being (no kidding). I actually feel like a Zombie right now.

However, the Challenge has taught me a lot of things about myself. Allow me to share some of my learnings, discoveries and thoughts.

Firstly, when I look back at some of my posts, I'm amazed that I could come up with some really good ideas and concept in such a short span of time. Writers will agree with me that it's not easy to come up with a concept after spending hours at an office job, and then staying up late to come up with a writeup in merely an hour or two - it takes a toll on your brain and emotions.

Secondly, I feel I've played havoc with my health. I kid you not when I say that I've had an average on merely 4.5 hours of sleep per night in the month of April 2016. A lot of my posts were published at 2 or 3 in the night, followed my uploading links on Facebook, Twitter and G+. Also, I made it a point to read blogs of other participants. All of this kept me up late.

Thirdly, I feel embarrassed when I read some of my shitty posts. I wish no one ever reads them - not that I have hardcore fans - they make me feel I've tarnished my blog.

Fourth - Because of the Challenge, I was able to find some amazing blogs and bloggers. Throughout the course of the challenge, I regularly visited these blogs. Some of them are Preeti's Other Side of Life, Tanvi's Revelations of a Tangled Me, Srishti's Blabber in Ink, Pooja Laxmeshwar's The Side I Hide, to name a few.

Of course, I must also mention bloggers who I knew even before the Challenge. All of them, directly or indirectly, inspired me to hang on. Shesha and Shine told me about the Challenge and we sort of made an unwritten pact to take it up. Boy, did we pull through, and how! Rajlakshmi was also there to offer words of encouragement. I also found support in the various Blogger groups on Facebook and fellow-bloggers on IndiBlogger.

Fifth - My wife also supported my in my endeavour in a BIG way. Letting me keep the lights on till late in the night, words of encouragement, chipping in with ideas for topics, allowing me to escape my share of the household chores, keeping our li'l kid occupied so that I could focus, allowing me to sleep a little longer in the morning to make up for the late nights - these made it a little less tough to go on.

Sixth - The Challenge has helped spur traffic to my blog, and how! I've had at least 200 visitors to my blog per day in April 2016. That's crazy!

There are a lot more things I'vc learnt, but I don't know what to say. Maybe I'm overwhelmed, or maybe I need some sleep.

I'll sign off by saying that I'm proud to be a Blogger. And I'm proud to have taken the A to Z Challenge head on and done a fairly good job.


Previous posts in the A to Z Challenge - April 2016:-
S - Signals
T - Toddlers
U - Underdog
V - Valhalla
W - We
X - Xtra Large
Y - Younger Days
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