For a living I used to slouch behind a computer screen and pencil push 40 hours a week. I’d been doing it for, maaan, eight years and let me tell you IT WAS THE MOST BORING THING EVER. But it paid fairly well and offered outstanding benefits, two things any young adult needs while venturing into the real world. The real problem was that I had no interest in that job. Like, I didn’t give two shits about the material I dealt with on a daily basis.
In 2009 when I was 21 I was beginning to tire of “going through the motions” and found myself wondering what I wanted to do with my life. But what could I do? Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do, so how could I even begin to do something? Not only was it frustrating, but it was a vicious cycle. I would complain about how my job wasn’t right for me, but that’s as far as it went. I knew I needed to find something to do — something that made me feel like I was doing something for myself.
Months passed, and nothing had changed. But a few days after E3 2009 had kicked off I was slumped on my couch, watching G4 coverage on TV and found myself yet again lamenting over the direction my life was going in. Did I really want to spend the rest of my life working at a job for which I had no passion?
I don’t know what it was about that day, but something changed. I turned off the television, whipped out my laptop and logged into my IGN account. (I had been visiting IGN during lunch breaks and had became somewhat familiar with their blogging system. That being said, I was a genuine lurker— I never posted or commented.)
20 minutes later I had written my first blog. I called it Just a Gaming Chick Venting. Reading it now makes me cringe, but hey, we all start at the bottom of the darkest and shittiest well, amirite?
The blog ultimately took off among the community, one thing led to another, and before I knew it I was spending all of my free time co-hosting podcasts, upkeeping a personal YouTube channel, covering games for multiple websites, managing online communities and more.
I founded BlondeNerd.com (y’know, this little website you’re currently on) a few years later in January of 2011. While I was still having a blast on the IGN blogs, I figured it was time to really start building a brand for myself. I didn’t have a lot to go off of, but thanks to my experience writing for other websites and a few years of blogging on IGN I had the basic tools I needed to get my website off of the ground.
So, on top of all of the podcasts, blogging and video stuff I was still working at the same ol’ 40-hour-a-week-pencil-pushing-job. And as much as I wished and yearned to leave that craphole, it was a paying craphole that supported my hobbies and travel. Video games and plane tickets to conventions weren’t cheap!
For the next year and a half everything stayed basically the same; I continued to e-hustle and work at the same place. But fast forward to July of 2012 — July 17th, 2012 to be specific — when something pretty awesome happened. Friends, I can say on this fateful day with the sincerest form of sincerity that it was the day I made the best decision of my life.
I quit that boring, directionless job, pulled out what little retirement I had saved up and, well, jumped head-first into the unknown. Now don’t get me wrong, it was scary AND it was a *huge* risk. But I had a paying, part-time side-gig lined up waiting for me and between that and my “retirement” I was able to pay my bills until I got on my feet.
From that day forward it’s been whirlwind of industry shenanigans, and as I’ve said many times before, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
This website was my major gateway into the industry, so I’ll forever be grateful to it. I hope I’ll continue to show it love and affection until I’m old and, like, grey, getting around via Goro Majima on all fours. NOW THAT’S A MENTAL IMAGE.
Thanks for reading! <3
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