A few winters ago, I was in Massachusetts with a group of friends walking to the local bakery. We were chatting back and forth, telling jokes, and mostly self-absorbed as we made our way down the final hill. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an elderly woman, slightly shaky on her feet and holding a large pry bar. Steadying herself before each swing, she was slowly chipping away the ice in front of her porch steps.
It took me a few seconds to register what I just saw, all the while everyone was still carrying on with conversation. Almost instantly, a knot grew in my stomach as I wished I had asked the woman if I could lend a hand. Soon, we were a good 20 feet away and in an awkward phase where I knew what I should have done but it felt too late. I kept walking with the group and, to this day, it bothers me that I missed the opportunity to offer my help.
The moral of this story is that regrets don’t always come from what we do but sometimes from what we don’t do. This blog and the lack of recent updates is a great example. With over a decade of experience building websites, I’m eager to share what I’ve learned, including mistakes I’ve made. This little slice of the web has accumulated a thick layer of dust over the years but that changes today.
“Why the long radio silence?” you might ask. The simple reason is my family comes first. In 2011, I married the love of my life, the following year we bought a house, and late last year we had an amazing baby girl — all three milestones required extensive planning. These are what I call beautiful burdens, which are the people and things in your life that require immense time and effort but are completely worth it. With financial stability for my family being a top concern, I have been putting off writing in order to spend more time on paid work.
After countless long nights trying to get ahead, I’m now at a point where I feel comfortable devoting some time to writing again. To start with, my goal is to publish a new article at least once a week and that pace will increase as time allows. Topics will mainly cover honest insights on self-employment, web design tutorials, and philosophies such as the work/life balance. I have, literally, hundreds of saved article topics I have been storing and look forward to sharing them all with you. This site will continue to evolve as well. For example, I’ll likely be replacing the current “store” section with an exciting idea I have for sharing in-depth guides and other useful resources (more on that soon).
I’m genuinely excited to get back to into writing and I would be honored if you would join me along the way. You can do this by grabbing the RSS feed, following me on Twitter, and/or signing up for the newsletter in the sidebar. I’ll also be answering specific questions from readers so please feel free to ask away.