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To Do Or Not To Do?
To do or not to do? This is the question I have been asking myself when the idea of telling a story came to mind earlier this month. I have finally decided: yes. Yes, I will do this. As it drew closer and closer to Earth Day 2020, I made the decision to do so. Why? Two years ago, it was the day after Earth Day 2018 that I made the major decision to turn Millennium Creek into a website with a purpose. It was no longer going to sit as a barren, abandoned land. I wanted it to become creek of life. A creek where the songbirds sing, green leaves rustle in the wind, trees tower proudly, fish swim vividly, turtles bask, and where species simply thrive.
Earth Day 2020
For Earth Day 2020, you will see two write-ups uploaded to Millennium Creek and its social media. To date, there has never been a double upload in the creek, making it the first time in Millennium Creek’s history. Indeed, a special act for special times like this.
The Story
The story I would like to tell you is not a charismatic, sensational, nor personal life story. This may come off as disappointing to readers looked at the title and expected such. Instead, my story will be focused on Millennium Creek over the years, and possibly other topics. This is not to say that this story will be uninteresting and not worth reading. In fact, I believe it will very well be worth the read. I will be discussing things that have been previously omitted and barely touched on. Are you a regular visitor, observer or curious bystander that has been waiting for a written piece with detailed accounts of Millennium Creek’s history? How about the goals and 2020+ future? This is the post you have been waiting for.
The Silent Years
“Over the last two years and counting, this place was originally created to serve as a professional website. It was also designed to function as an alternative backup, while exploring and taking a look at other platforms over the years.”
Up to that point in 2018, that was the only thing visitors of Millennium Creek knew about it. In fact, even up to this point in 2020, that still held true. Why? Here is the unfiltered truth: because I did not think it was important to go into any details on the silent years of the creek. I did not believe that anybody cared, or would ever care for that matter. For Earth Day 2020, that is no longer the case. Allow me to fill you in on the story of 2016 & 2017.
2016: The Creation Of Millennium Creek
Before creating a WordPress-powered website, I looked at Google’s Blogger. There may have been additional platforms I looked at, but Blogger and WordPress are the only two I remember as being the ones that interested me the most. I proceeded to creating a blog on Blogger in January 2016. I then wanted to create one on WordPress, too. February 1st 2016, Millennium Creek is created, not February 4th as WordPress erroneously notified me. If you take a look at About, that page was shows the 1st, making it impossible for it to be the 4th. Certainly an extremely random subject to bring up. However, if I am going to be informing readers on the origins and details of this creek, such seemingly nitty-gritty things do matter.
Why Did I Name My Creek Millennium?
Why did I choose the name Millennium Creek? Surely, I could simply just say that I think it sounds beautiful, and perfectly reflects the blue nature aesthetics of the website. When I was naming my website, I wanted something to do with nature. I went with water. But, what type of water body would I go with? An ocean? A river? Stream? Lake? Creek? Creek ultimately won my decision at that time, though I will admit that I do sometimes think that I would have been better off going with Ocean or Lake.
Now for Millennium. Why Millennium? A millennium is a period of one thousand years. There is just something powerful, something mysterious, something above and beyond thinking of such a word and its meaning. With this in mind, I chose Millennium Creek as the title for this brand. The Millennium Vortex in my logo represents the intensity and power of it. Are there any creeks that have survived for millennia in the world? I am uncertain.
2017
After Millennium Creek was created back in 2016, there was no other activity that took place. Enter 2017, nothing. This would mark 2017 as a year of complete silence for Millennium Creek. Now for you attentive readers, you must have a serious question at this point: “If Millennium Creek did not have the purpose it had until 2018, then why does the 2016-founded About page say its a content website?”
The answer? I never deleted the About page when I updated it years later. Therefore, this kept the website’s true creation date intact.
2018: Year Of Two Goals
2018 was a huge year for Millennium Creek because of two major goals: Revival and Portfolio work.
The Revival Of Millennium Creek
2018 was the year I remembered the creek that I have forsaken. During March of that year, I admitted that I have not posted anything until then. My interest in the creek was returning, yet, I still was not 100% certain about what I would do with it. I already mentioned what happened to the website in April 2018 within the first paragraph of this story. Therefore, there is no need for repetition.
Portfolio Project
At some point in May (possible June) 2018 I embarked on a quest to complete a portfolio project consisting of six categories: Articles, blog posts, website critiques, copywriting (webpages), argumentative essays, and creative pieces. My goal was to build a portfolio I could show to clients as proof of my capabilities.
2019: Year Of Failure And Critical Reconsideration
2019 was a very interesting year in its on right. Being the final year of the 2010s decade, there where a number of things that went on during its duration. Some of which tragically carried on into 2020. More on that later in this story. For Millennium Creek, 2019 was the year where numerous major events event took place. I completed the longstanding portfolio project, did intense research on contracts, invoicing and the like, failed, reconsidered, admitted the need for support (much to my personal dismay), and then?
Completion Of The Portfolio Project
On May 3rd, 2019, I uploaded my final write-up for the portfolio project and called it complete. I was simultaneously excited and nervous to finally head to the next step: selling my services. But just before I could that, I had a bit more work to do, in regards to researching how to go about selling, creating contracts, invoices, and other important tidbits. Once I finished researching and creating those, I went ahead and created numerous pages on May 30th detailing different aspects of my services. Next day, I officially launched my services!
Launch Day
I took to Twitter and Instagram with Tweets and a post detailing the links to the different pages for details on my services. There were no responses that day, but due to my largely non-existent Internet presence, I did not expect immediate results.
Kijiji Maybe?
When time went by with no notifications from interested clients through Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or WordPress, I decided to think outside the box in June and try to advertise elsewhere: Kijiji. The first response was somebody who wanted me to their homework. For legal and ethical reasons, I declined. The second response was from somebody who wanted product descriptions. Unfortunately, I did not have a business number. They only wanted the communication to be through by phone, which resulted in no deal.
Failure
Aside from the two responses on Kijiji, there were no further messages. Days later, nothing. Weeks later, nothing. Months later, nothing. As it drew close to September 2019, I had a major reconsideration about what I wanted to actually do. When I thought about it, it led to the September 3rd Update.
Reconsideration
Upon thinking about the nature of pitching services, I decided that it was not something I wanted to do after all. The fact that you have to constantly be chasing clients for work, pitching, contract signing, invoicing, — it is a lot of precarious work. This is not to say that it is bad, or that everyone should forget about it. For me, I would rather have greater stability and focus by doing full-time remote work for one person or company either as an independent contractor or employee.
Confused about what I mean by “full-time independent contractor?” If I am the one that chooses the pay, work hours, and scope of the work, then that qualifies me as an independent contractor. If the client is the one that will be deciding the work hours, pay, and general nature of the work, then that means they would have to legally hire me as an employee and give benefits.
The Confession
One month later, October 2019 is here. I started extensively researching Creator Support Platforms. After researching, I decided that I liked Ko-fi the most. I registered on the 15th, which also happened to be National Flex Day. Nine days later, much to my dismay, I decided that I would announce it in this awkward writing. As concerned as I was about how people would look at it, I could not continue to act as if I do not need it. If you have a good passion, you deserve to get paid for it. I decided it was the right thing to let people know that I would love to make Millennium Creek a full-time passion that I could live off of. I was tired of it feeling like a side hustle bag of portfolio pieces that I would show to employers or clients, who never ended up hiring.
And Then?
“And then what happened after this?” You must be asking. I still continued writing and uploading content to Millennium Creek for the remainder of 2019, as evidenced with writings such as Mobile Device Restriction In Ontarian Classrooms and Tesla Cybertruck.
2020: The New Era
2020 marked the beginning of a New Era. As such, I was both excited and concerned about the things that have yet to unfold. Still, I saw mostly viewed it as a year where many good things could happen. Up to April 22, 2020, I have 8 write-ups that were published in 2020. 61 in total combining writings from all years. My future and goals for Millennium Creek? For 2020, visibility is the main thing I have in mind. More people need to know that it exists, and that it is worth reading and supporting. No, I do not plan to achieve this by drastically upping the amount of content I produce. Quality over quantity, and natural interest for the topics I write about, still remain as core values here on Millennium Creek. Being more active on social media is exactly what I have in mind. I can already see that is has resulted in a slight uptick of profile visits. Consistency is key. If I remain consistent and positive, I can achieve this.
The 2020 Confession
I tried too hard to chase the money. When I look at what I have done back in 2019, it was certainly ambitious, but also highly unintelligent. First things first, I should have concentrated on growing my brand’s online presence. Looking at it from a client and employer’s perspective, most people strongly prefer to buy goods or services from a known brand. Even if the goods and services are of high quality, there are thousands — millions of brands that are also offering high quality goods, too. As such, these large, shiny, recognizable brands tower over the unknown, and win the hearts of employers and clients.
Secondly, get a business number before doing business. That should have been extremely obvious. Yet, I did not bother with it because I insisted on the idea that I could get by with e-mails. Indeed an extremely shortsighted move.
Too Depressing?
I hope that my story did not come off as too depressing, weak, or boring. Being a remote content creator, is truthfully not all glamorous. It takes a tremendous amount of work and perseverance. It is all too easy to just give up. I did not give up, however. Ever since I left the non-remote life back in late 2015, and discovered a world where there are many things that can be done entirely remotely, I said yes. Yes, I am going to take this path and not go back. Despite the bumps of the boulders, deep mud puddles, scrapings from rough tree bark, tripping on unseen rocks, mountain lion roars, the skunk’s sprayings, and dark tunnels, I am still on the path. Why? Am I insane? Am I unrealistic? Should I have come off when I was told to? Oh, if only I had answers to my own questions….
Stay Safe
2020 is unfortunately heavily associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). As such, many aspects of life pertained to close contact, has been temporarily changed. No sports games, open shopping malls, in-class lessons, and many more. As bad COVID-19 as is however, it is a wake-up call for many things that should have been addressed from long time. How long with this horrific disease linger plague precious Earth? Nobody knows. To make matters worse, there are an increasing number of professionals warning about a second wave, if countries ease restrictions too soon.
Social distancing does not have to mean seemingly endless boredom, though. There are many things that can be done during these rough times:
- Go for a walk outdoors
- Exercise indoors
- Play board games
- Call or video call friends or family
- Play an instrument. A lot of musicians and tutors are offering virtual lessons.
- Have a pet? Interact with him more.
- Make traditional or virtual art
- Learn new computer skills
- Read more books
And many, many more possibilities that if they were to be listed, this story would turn into the Mackenzie River. Stay safe.
Millennium River 