One year ago today, I started my journey here in the Coil Blogs platform!

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It was with a post titled “Why One More Home?” where I explained why I decided to start One More Home, a project aiming to raise XRP to help fighting homelessness.

Shortly after, as I only posted once more the next month an update about One More Home announcing we had reached 17000 XRP raised, my journey started seeming like another failed blogging attempt (I failed spectacularly with my WordPress blog many times a few years ago). Although, this time around I had a better (and very valid) excuse: The birth of my second child.

Anyway, fast forward to September/October last year and with things a bit more settled at home, the blogging bug started itching again in good part as I started seeing signs of life around the Coil Blogs through mentions of the CBC in my Twitter timeline and initiatives like Patricia C's -may I say genius- idea of starting a thread to find Coil creators on Twitter as the Coil platform didn't have a search function back then.

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Here's the thread:

https://twitter.com/PattyAlexx/status/1172940782199869446

So I dropped my Coil creator link in Patricia's thread, eventually reached out to Ken Melendez to apply to become part of the Content Builder's Club I started hearing so much about, and started letting my mind run with ideas to revive my blog beyond the One More Home updates.

The first blog series I came up with was The Blab, a series of interviews with members of the XRP Community about anything other than XRP. The Blab was closely followed by XRPLORE, which is probably my favorite blog to write as I get to learn more about the XRP Ledger and the outstanding group of people building on it.

After these two series, ideas of new ones just kept popping up in addition to a few standalone posts: INSPOtlight, The Bull Run Files, The Epic XRP Community Tweets and a more personal Vagabonding. I was feeling I was on fire.

But why was I so fired up? I didn't recognize myself! I was pushing boundaries, finding my place in the platform and having a blast. It was all because I found a vibrant and caring community that provided me the encouragement I needed to avoid my new adventure to end up in just another blogging crash and burn.

Maybe I got a little too fired up, and had to take it down a notch because of -you know- priorities. With two little ones at home one's got to pick their battles, so I decided to write less and take other difficult decisions like leaving the CBC (It's a wonderful group of people, and I really miss hanging out there, but I just do not have enough time to do so right now).

In any case, I am thrilled to be part of this awesome community of creators. I'm having so much fun writing and exchanging ideas as I've also enjoyed the high quality content coming up every day, and plan to continue to do so at least until it's time again to pick my battles.

My Why(s)

This year in the Coil platform has not only enabled me to preserve my why but also to strengthen it, as this has become my go-to platform to provide updates about the project and keep raising awareness and funds to help in the fight against the global housing crisis

Along the way, my why has not just strengthened but it also has multiplied, as I have found my place -a new why- in the XRP Community: Highlighting the awesome work of the developers building on the XRPL while learning tons about this awesome tech. If I hadn't started XRPLORE, I doubt that I would have deep dived into the XRPL projects the way I did and interacted with so many brilliant people.

What's Next?

I believe in the concept of web monetization, I really do. And I want to contribute as much as possible to spread the word in my network, hoping to make the blogging bug itch in others.

As to my blogging efforts, while I may take these down a notch further and focus on what really resonates in my audience (for this I'm asking for a bit of your help in the premium section of this post 😬) maybe writing less often, I still plan to continue pushing boundaries (hint: and adding a bit of Cinnamon).

Oh and by the way, there is a new bug itching: The “come up with my own website” bug. Seeing awesome work from fellow creators is really inspiring me to explore this avenue so there may be some news soon around that, if time allows.

In the meantime: Relax. Fasten your seatbelt. Enjoy the journey.

Header photo by [Mitchell](https://unsplash.com/@mtchllyng?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash

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