A little more than a year ago, in December of 2021, I started this blog to share some interesting facts about the United States; earlier that year, I had stumbled upon much information about the history, geography, and development of the US that no one ever taught me, and it seemed that scarcely any other Americans knew these facts either.
Learning about ancient Egypt and China in school was fascinating, however, it never personally related to me; it was foreign. I thrived during my first American history class, and my unexpected, vigorous curiosity was finally being satisfied. It was inevitable that the topic of the history class would transition to another nation, which is when I was left longing for more and unsure how to articulate the craving; this was around the time I learned to ride a bicycle.
Looking back, the history I was taught in Elementary School only scratched the surface, which merely served to expand my desire for American history. My discoveries in 2021 reignited my curiosity, and the inexplicable fascination within compelled me to tell others about the discoveries, so I expressed them with my family, until they, likely overwhelmed, recommended that I start a blog.
When I started this blog, I had no idea how I would manage to consistently convert my mental understanding of the discoveries into an engaging, written document or how to provide meaningful images each week, yet I have apparently accomplished these tasks so far.
This last year has helped improve my understanding of the United States’ formation and development, which is an obvious outcome since the original focus of the blog is American history, however, there is a list of achievements that have resulted from this blog that were unforeseen:
- Due to the nature of Onward American, I fully expected to receive views strictly from the United States, yet I have received views across the entire globe over these past 12 months, which I greatly appreciate.
- Carbonated beverages became a reoccurring subject because of Coca-Cola’s release of Starlight, of which I was unaware until April of 2022.
- I started a Youtube channel to house the videos of the pouring of beverages that I wished to feature in a post.
- The discussion of languages and dialects became a subject since I decided to talk about a specific word that is commonly misused: electrocute.
- Road Thoughts became a series because I had some unconventional thoughts I wanted share, which I never imagined that I had the capacity to convey them without seeming completely inept.
Among these relatively ordinary achievements, there is an additional skill I acquired that is moderately eccentric: I have drawn most of the images on this blog… on my phone, which does not even have 5 inches of screen size, without a stylus or any other tool.
Quite possibly, the most important lesson that I have learned through the challenges and frustrations of blogging without sufficient tools is that the most powerful assets for success are an unrelenting determination to succeed and a willingness to learn new skills; if you take nothing else from this blog, I would suggest retaining those two qualities.
Thank you for joining me on this journey; I hope you are intrigued enough to join me for the history, fun facts, and discoveries to come.
What is your favorite Onward American post or series?
Onward American 