Start Good Blog

It’s undeniable. The internet has revolutionized human existence, and with it, somewhere thirteen years ago in a small corner of the universe, I was clicking through my 56.6 k portal to “the world.” My, how things have changed. As the internet transformed and evolved, so did I. Like many things in life, the web is what you make it. For me, it unknowingly gave me a voice that people actually listened to, and an identity amongst the masses. It started with a humble little thing called Xanga. A friend introduced it to me my junior year of high school and I ended up leaving it pretty much dormant for the first two years. Suddenly, I was a freshman in college and I realized it was the only thing that could alleviate the pressures of class, work and social life. It became a hobby, a stress reliever and a companion during some of the hardest times in my life.

Initially, xanga was a rhetorical dump of my daily habits and occurrences, but I didn’t feel satisfied just regurgitating the events of my day. Over the next two or three years, I transitioned my online “agenda” into obvservations, opinions, critiques and general life lessons that I was able to filter through my daily routines. Miraculously, people read, people paid attention, but most importantly, people listened and identified.

And this was when I knew there was something more to blogging than dear-diary’s. If my small speck of the web was able to generate a handful of loyal readership, imagine the possibilities of something more structured, independent, and on a grander scale. My greatest driving force behind xanga was the desire to plant seeds of thought and change in people’s heads. As a student of mass media, I found that the more I learned about my concentration, the more I became pessimistic about society at large–and the more I felt that there needed to be a change–change in thought, cultural perception, values and beliefs. You could say I want to change the world. I’m not going to lie, I do.

So what does Start Good mean to me? It means an online space for people to learn and share from one another, all with the goal of making society a better place. A place that transforms ignorance into knowledge, that brings awareness for the world around us, something that shows there is more to life than all-about-me. I hope that Start Good becomes an environment that facilitates respect and appreciation not only for our individual selves, but for the people we often overlook, or don’t care to look at.

Everyone has a story. And every story has a lesson to be learnt.

Start Good. What does that mean? Many titles came across my mind when I started forming my thoughts on this blog. Looking for some clear vision, a path which I could march myself and others through, I wrote out a few names in my journal and tossed most out. As I brainstormed, I knew that “good” had to be a part of the title. It is the single word that defines what everyone is trying to achieve on some level. Something that I want to share and can see that others wish to share also. Unfortunately, the words surrounding “good” were thought up with much less confidence.

At a certain point, being stuck on a name is not a good excuse for leaving an idea as just an idea. So with burning confidence and determination I created this Blogger account(Editor’s Note: This site is now on a paid server using Wordpress). Luckily, the mind is always working in the background, ready to give a spark of inspiration at the right moment: Start Good popped up as soon as I was asked for a site name.

So why Start Good? It works on with my mission on so many levels. I want this place to be a blog that people can start their day in a good way. A blog that inspires people to create something good or to share some good with another. A place to learn, to lift and make life a little better and more important.

How do I plan to do that? Well I plan to do that with a lot of help. Everyone has something valuable to share. Friends, parents, professors, mentors and others. I have a story, you have a story, we all have a story. How many people know yours and whose do you know? Each person is a bottle, constantly being shaken by life and ready to explode with knowledge and experience. The people around me are an untapped resource that I hope will aid me to fill this site.

Beyond this, there are vast numbers of of websites with information, interesting news, advice and the like, of which provide more value than I could ever in my lifetime. However, I see that the size of the internet has created a double-edged sword. The limitless information is, unfortunately, impossible for all but the most determined to sift through. I hope that I and others can become that filter.

In the end, I hope to create a blog, a dialog, a meeting place; somewhere that people can come for something to inform them and inspire them. A place of growth, compassion, information, humanity and laughter.

Start Good. This is my Start.