Call it a New Year's Resolution. Call it an expression of creativity. But whatever you do, do not call it a blog. It's not that having a blog is a bad thing, although the word is downright depressing. But when you work in the creative field, the absolutely last thing that you want to create is something that everybody else has already thought of. And to say the least, blogs are a dime a dozen.
So what do you do? How do you create something different? For the longest time the fear that I was facing was the realization that if I wrote something, everybody, including God, would judge me. What if they don't like it? What if an employer read it and didn't like my writing? What if a friend read it, disagreed, and unfriended me on Facebook? O.M.G.
I soon realized that there were a lot of "what ifs." And that life itself had a lot of "what ifs." And so if I didn't just suck it up and start writing, I wouldn't be in the position I am in.
Which brings us to the question of "where am I, and more importantly, who am I?"
I am Steve Salibian, a 34 year old Copywriter, working in Doha, Qatar. For those who haven't been on planet earth for too long, Doha, Qatar is a small peninsula in the Middle East. It is famous for winning the World Cup Bid 2022, as well as having the highest income per capita in the world. It's also infamous for its working conditions for migrant workers. More on all of these issues at a later date. You may think stating this is foolish, but when I first went to work in Oman in 2010, I had friends in Canada who didn't understand why I was moving to a "desolate African country."
Going back to, "what if." After months of debating whether I should write or not, I realized that the only real thing stopping me was fear, and this fear was out of my control. I knew that my postings would never be 100% perfect. There would be spelling mistakes and grammar errors. But after all that I had learned, I knew that sometimes you just have to climb the stairs at the community swimming pool, make your way to the end of the diving board without slipping, and dive head first into the chlorine infested waters of life.
Plus, to be honest, this was not going to be my first venture intoblogging.
I hate to show off so soon, but I am actually one of the first people I know to actually be ON the internet. My good friend, Mark Karabulut told me about it way back in 1998, when Savage Garden ruled the charts. I remember he told me how great it was and that I urgently needed to get it. At first it was a little cumbersome, mainly because I was using a 28.8K US Robotics Modem to view first generation content on a Mosaic internet browser. But once I upgraded to Netscape Navigator, and listened to tunes on my Winamp player, the world was my oyster.
Then in 2002, I actually started writing online when the internet was still just a Commodore 128. I wrote about Napster, advertising, the music industry, etc. Just like now, it was a way of expressing my creativity and creating a subjective, yet intriguing point of view. But at that point, there was no one watching in the digital world - only techs and nerds like me.
Fast forward 15 years and I'm back where I started - somewhat. I've now worked on 3 different continents and I'm married. Yet writing my first post for Observations and Obituaries feels like opening my duo tang on the first day of school. The plan is to share my thoughts on a variety of topics whether personal or part of popular culture. The opinions will strictly be my own.
I really have no expectations except trying to intrigue readers enough to read more. This reminds me of a question someone once asked Jerry Seinfeld, comedian and co-creator of the epic series Seinfeld. They asked him of his favourite Seinfeld episode. His answer was genius. It was the episode that got him to the next.
That's the epitome of what I want this to be. You can call it an endless journey of perspectives and perspiration. You can call it a delectable serving of Salibian souffle that we can enjoy together. But whatever you do, do not break the first rule of writing club.
Do not call this a blog.
So what do you do? How do you create something different? For the longest time the fear that I was facing was the realization that if I wrote something, everybody, including God, would judge me. What if they don't like it? What if an employer read it and didn't like my writing? What if a friend read it, disagreed, and unfriended me on Facebook? O.M.G.
I soon realized that there were a lot of "what ifs." And that life itself had a lot of "what ifs." And so if I didn't just suck it up and start writing, I wouldn't be in the position I am in.
Which brings us to the question of "where am I, and more importantly, who am I?"
I am Steve Salibian, a 34 year old Copywriter, working in Doha, Qatar. For those who haven't been on planet earth for too long, Doha, Qatar is a small peninsula in the Middle East. It is famous for winning the World Cup Bid 2022, as well as having the highest income per capita in the world. It's also infamous for its working conditions for migrant workers. More on all of these issues at a later date. You may think stating this is foolish, but when I first went to work in Oman in 2010, I had friends in Canada who didn't understand why I was moving to a "desolate African country."
Going back to, "what if." After months of debating whether I should write or not, I realized that the only real thing stopping me was fear, and this fear was out of my control. I knew that my postings would never be 100% perfect. There would be spelling mistakes and grammar errors. But after all that I had learned, I knew that sometimes you just have to climb the stairs at the community swimming pool, make your way to the end of the diving board without slipping, and dive head first into the chlorine infested waters of life.
Plus, to be honest, this was not going to be my first venture into
I hate to show off so soon, but I am actually one of the first people I know to actually be ON the internet. My good friend, Mark Karabulut told me about it way back in 1998, when Savage Garden ruled the charts. I remember he told me how great it was and that I urgently needed to get it. At first it was a little cumbersome, mainly because I was using a 28.8K US Robotics Modem to view first generation content on a Mosaic internet browser. But once I upgraded to Netscape Navigator, and listened to tunes on my Winamp player, the world was my oyster.
Then in 2002, I actually started writing online when the internet was still just a Commodore 128. I wrote about Napster, advertising, the music industry, etc. Just like now, it was a way of expressing my creativity and creating a subjective, yet intriguing point of view. But at that point, there was no one watching in the digital world - only techs and nerds like me.
Fast forward 15 years and I'm back where I started - somewhat. I've now worked on 3 different continents and I'm married. Yet writing my first post for Observations and Obituaries feels like opening my duo tang on the first day of school. The plan is to share my thoughts on a variety of topics whether personal or part of popular culture. The opinions will strictly be my own.
I really have no expectations except trying to intrigue readers enough to read more. This reminds me of a question someone once asked Jerry Seinfeld, comedian and co-creator of the epic series Seinfeld. They asked him of his favourite Seinfeld episode. His answer was genius. It was the episode that got him to the next.
That's the epitome of what I want this to be. You can call it an endless journey of perspectives and perspiration. You can call it a delectable serving of Salibian souffle that we can enjoy together. But whatever you do, do not break the first rule of writing club.
Do not call this a blog.
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