Beginning Anew

*tap tap* Does this thing still work?

Joking aside, hello to the intrepid few that may still be hanging out on my corner of the Internet! It’s been an enormously long period of time since I last posted here and I have to say, I’ve missed writing a great deal. I won’t bore you with the lengthy explanation for my absence — it pretty much boils down to college, work, and other real life responsibilities. However, even in this interim, both my father and I have continued to share our love of the game together. Warcraft remains important in my life, as does writing, and I wanted to take a moment to sit down and type up a post today.

While years may have passed since I regularly posted on this blog, this place still remains an important part of my Warcraft identity. Part of this is absolutely due to the fact that there was never any closure — as my life got busier, posts became more and more infrequent before they eventually ceased. Without a definitive end or hiatus, I’ve always viewed the blog as a project I will or should pick up again once I have the free time. Sort of like the last item on my To Do list, it has lingered in the back of my mind for years.

More fundamentally than this, I’ve come to realize that the blog likely will always be a part of my WoW identity. For one, many of my earliest experiences and friendships in the Warcraft community are cemented within the archives. Even though we may not blog much any more, I still keep in contact with friends that I made half a decade ago because of this site. However, it was actually the words of someone I met at Blizzcon that fully clarified my own feelings for the blog. Upon meeting up with an artist friend I had been mutuals with for years on Twitter, they exclaimed, “oh, you’re the one who writes that blog! Growing Up in Azeroth!”. Keep in mind, even by the time I was meeting this person, I had not been regularly posting for some time. Those words really stuck with me, and even got me to try and get back on the blogging bandwagon for a little while.

I’ve given those words a great deal of thought over the years and realized something — I don’t think I will ever fully turn out the lights here. I’m still enjoying Warcraft and still playing with my father, which means I potentially may always have something to write about. I’ve also realized that setting myself strict goals for posting or content (see some previous year’s Blog Resolutions, haha) aren’t actually the way that I interact with this space. This is my happy place, not my job. I want to reinvent and treat it as such.

This brings me lastly for my reason for posting today. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found myself buried more and more in work and relationships and productivity. Spaces that I enjoyed for the sheer sake of fun shrink. Of the three things I claimed to love when I started this blog, writing, art, and video games, I only actively participate in one of them. Growing up means a lot of change, responsibility, and maturity for sure, but it doesn’t have to mean putting aside all the things that I love.

My New Year resolution – my personal one, not one associated specifically with the blog as I’ve done in the past – is to embrace my creative outlets more. Write a little more. Paint a little more. Sing a little more. And do these things because I want to, productivity be damned.

So yes, long story short, Growing Up in Azeroth is back! I can’t promise that I’m going to post on any predictable schedule or with any predictable content, but what I can say is I do plan on using this space once again to discuss all things World of Warcraft that I care about. I know the heyday of Warcraft blogging has likely passed (and I’m honestly not sure anyone will read this other than myself!) but I want to get this out there to the world as a promise to myself. It’s time to write for fun once again!