great writing is all over the internet

i started this blog in part because i dared to strive toward greatness. if i wanted to ever be a great writer, i'd have to put reps in. i'd have to really work for it. 

what inspired this was reading my dad's old blog. it's nearly lost to the seas of time now. he only ever wrote a dozen posts, and he himself forgot about it entirely. but i went back and read it and was blown away by the quality of the writing itself. it moved me to tears! 

i think in previous times, i've assumed that all great writing is well-known. as in, the world is fundamentally a sort of meritocracy, where the writing that becomes well-known is the writing that is, by all definitions, the very best writing. 

the more i exposed myself to more "unpolished" writing via blogposts and tweets from internet friends, the more i realized that the world is teeming with great writing, and some of it is only read by a handful of people. 

maybe this seems demoralizing. what do you mean, the quality of the writing isn't the only thing that determines whether people read it? 

but for me, it's actually an amazing thing to realize! because it means i can achieve my goal of great writing, even if it's just on my silly little blog, even if i'm the only person that ever reads it.