We’re done here.

At the end of this year, this blog will be 10 years old. An entire decade of thoughts and musings transcribed.

It hasn’t been an easy 10 years. But writing here has kept me sane throughout both the good and bad times, and even if this website is really just some bytes and pixels on the Internet, I see it as my best friend in so many ways. When I am distressed, when I am happy, when I am brimming with philosophical thoughts, this is the medium I turn to in order to express those feelings. It is the only confidant in the world that will never react negatively to my honesty or use my truths against me.

I always kept the things I wrote public as a matter of principle. Some friends kept up with my posts, some didn’t. I didn’t care much either way. Anything they encountered that they didn’t like was their own problem — I never forced or even asked them to read anything that I wrote, and it was naive if they believed I was going to censor my thoughts for the sake of not offending anyone — what kind of outlet is that?

Over the past decade, adhering to this principle of free speech, if you will, has caused a lot of strife in my personal life, friendships, and relationships.

But I’ve always stood — and still stand — by what I’ve said: I don’t care if people read these things I write.

But I’ve had it with people using my own words against me. Last weekend was the last straw. I don’t feel safe in my own safe space anymore.

I will never stop writing. But as I’ve aged over the past 10 years, I’ve realized something monumentally important to surviving in this world: principles or no principles, people will hurt you. People will misinterpret you. People don’t understand each other. Most of the time, people don’t stop and think.

And naivete about this will get you nowhere.

From this point on, my posts will be locked. The website will soon follow.

Godspeed.