A few days ago, a major event went unnoticed by me: on the 27th of March, my blog turned 13 years old. Of course, I am talking about my Romanian blog since this one came to life just this year. But my first post ever on what then was filipac.net was written on 27th of March, 2008.

Back in 2008, I was only in the 8th grade and I was active in a Christian community that had a website, a blog, and an internet radio. I had “DJ” slots and played music and made live shows for ~50 persons per day. The owner of that community showed his support for my volunteer work by buying me a year of hosting plus a domain. When I told him the name of the domain, filipac.net his first reaction was “Really, are you sure? Seems like an odd choice”. In fact, you may know from this site that my name is Filip Pacurar and that nickname is a combination of both my names without the double P – Filip Pacurar, Filipac. Little did I know that that would remain my nickname until today, 13 years later. At the old workplace, colleagues were calling me by the name “Filipac, what are we eating today?”.

Over the years, I’ve written a little over 1500 posts. Of course, right at the beginning, I was copy-pasting other stuff, but after that phase, I went to write original content.

The main reason why I started this journey was the fact that I always felt right writing down my thoughts. Even though I am a programmer, I always like the “human” part of things: making and creating things, writing, exploring. I’m not the typical programmer that always liked math and science, I liked a bit of everything I could learn.

Back when I was in 8th or 9th grade, people used to make fun of me because I always felt the need to document things. Broke my tooth in 9th grade? Wrote it on my blog. Went on a nice trip? Guessed it, it was on my blog. People read my stories but somehow they made fun of my habit because it was a common misconception that blogging is for known people and it is a way to make money. And then they got on my blog, read by 10 people a day, and felt the urge to make fun thinking that I would stop.

Still, over the course of the years, I’ve been somehow constant and kept the blog alive, even if the posts count sometimes remained the same. And by doing this I’ve made a reputation of being the guy with a blog in my closed-friends circle. If you search my name, you can find a ton of information about me, you just have to know Romanian haha.

Sharing what I go through and what I know helped me get both my last job and the current job I have. I strongly believe in open-source and somehow I think about this blog as open-sourcing my life. So, just judging this single argument that I got two great jobs as a software engineer makes me say having a blog is awesome, even in 2021 when people get tired of reading two sentences.

Having a blog, or maybe a private journal helps you in the first place, not the others around you. People tend to forget their past details, of course, you remember big things, but it is impossible to remember how you felt exactly 900 days ago if it is not documented anywhere. I’m also thinking that my two kids (for now) will someday read what went through my mind when I was their age. Maybe when I’ll be gone from this world, all they will have about me is my blog posts and some pictures. Who knows, but I am thinking it is a good thing to leave your legacy in words and thoughts, not so much in materials things.

A blog can help you build your personal brand. Do you like the weird design that I have on this blog? Honestly, I don’t care, it is MY space, not my readers’. Do you hate a thing that I’ve written? Again, won’t really care, it is just my thoughts put in words, you cannot change my words. But all that I do around here is my personal brand. If you know 0 things about me, you can spend half an hour clicking the random posts button on the header and read about me and my life. You can Google me and among the first results you’ll have my personal blog, which I control, not only my social accounts that are not in my control, I can have them today and be gone tomorrow.

Even if a small opportunity arises from having a blog, like how my current boss I have found my blog and read random posts of mine and then decided to write me an email to work together, I would say that having a blog is worth it no matter of the year, a decade or whatever part of the history we are on. Also, I started this English blog so I can practice written English and improve my knowledge. That’s why I write this article in English and not in my main language, Romanian (over the past years, when I had a blog-birthday I wrote in Romanian). I consider this a big plus that others don’t have, being able to practice written English (i had a ton of English hours in high school but since then I’ve stopped writing long things in English).

So, is it worth it to have a blog in the year of audio, podcasts, and video? That’s a big AFFIRMATIVE.

I would encourage all of you to start a private journal, maybe you are not comfortable sharing your thoughts publicly, but having a consistent habit of writing down thoughts helps you a lot.

In the end, I want to thank all of my friends for sticking around me and making fun of me having a blog, that was my main “fuel” that helped me keep this blog alive over the 13 years. I know you’re not always on the same side with me, but that’s just how life works.

Here’s to another year, a year where I hope to spend more time writing valuable things on both of my blogs (RO and EN). I have nice plans, let’s see how it goes.