The Little Gay Blog recently turned 1 year old. It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of, as it does takes time, effort and motivation to keep the blog going.

As such, I’ve been reflecting a bit on why I started this blog in the first place, and what it is that I’m hoping to achieve with it. I don’t make any money out of this blog (and have no plans on ever having ads on here, don’t worry!). It really is more of a creative outlet for me and something that I really enjoy doing.

One of the reasons why I started the blog, and also why I called it the Little Gay Blog, is because I really believe in giving a voice and attention to the little things in life which often tend to get overlooked. We live in an age of information overload. It’s almost becoming a type of hyper-reality. Everything needs to be loud, bright, the biggest, the best in order to cut through.

But being loud, bright and big isn’t a guarantee that the message is of high quality. It just means that your message gets heard. And then what? What happens next?…In a lot of cases, the answer is nothing. Hence 15 minutes of viral fame quickly gives way to obscurity until the the next loud, bright, big thing comes along that captures our collective fancy. It’s almost as if we’re happy to bounce along from one distraction to the next, consuming empty information calories, and being left with the feeling of having eaten, but still being hungry.

That’s why I love the idea of celebrating the small, the quiet, the hard to find, the not immediately easy to understand. A wonderful thing happens when you actually have to do some work and exert a little effort in order to understand ideas and concepts. It’s the same reason why the movie never matches the book. It’s because when we read and use our imagination, we actually create something so rich and wonderful that an on-screen depiction can’t possibly do it justice.

I’m a quiet guy and I genuinely do enjoy listening to and learning from other people. But my quietness has often been mistaken for shyness, or even boring-ness. But I know myself well enough to know I’m neither. Being able to sustain a blog with a year’s worth of original content is a testament to that.

I just know that a lot of my thoughts and ideas are different. I approach topics differently. My opinions aren’t set in stone and I love to ask questions and challenge – myself more than anyone else really. These traits, for whatever reason, are unusual. When I speak to other gay guys (irrespective of age, but generally older), they do tend to be more set in their ways. I actually really admire this, because they have their convictions, and they stand by them. It’s just that I’m not that kind of guy. My opinion about X today may change if I hear/read/see something tomorrow that, in my mind, warrants a change of opinion.

And that’s the essence of what this blog is about. It’s called the Little Gay Blog because it doesn’t have to be in your face. It’s not about generating controversy just for the sake of it. It’s about taking the time to examine issues (both important ones, as well as trivial and personal ones) in a way that is different, challenging, unique and hopefully interesting for you, the reader.

I realise that in some ways that may limit the potential growth of the blog, but I’m honestly not concerned about that. I don’t need to be the loudest, brightest or the biggest, I’m happy, in fact I celebrate the fact that I’m just the Little Gay Blog!