It’s February the second. Which means that I’ve completed the blogging challenge I set out to do myself. If you asked me when I first started out, I wouldn’t have been so sure that I was going to make it to today, having achieved my goal.
But almost 400 posts and a fourth place ranking among the country’s most influential blogs, and here I am.
It took a lot of effort: many hours were spent brainstorming, writing, editing, sharing, and interacting. I often found myself focusing more about what I wanted to write rather than work. Or there were times when I had to wake myself up from a blissful nap or cling to my mobile phone just because I hadn’t written something for that day.
I can’t say that I loved every minute of doing The 24th Project because sometimes I was just making myself write for the sake of writing. Sometimes I wrote something that I thought was amazing but the stats were bad, meaning that the readers did not share my opinion. Many times I thought about great topics but thought that maybe they would be too much for the world.
And more often than none, I questioned the format of Beyond Beirut. In an age when people don’t read much anymore, how did I expect to gain readership with some of my posts going over 500 words?
Still, I powered on. I needed to do this for myself because I needed to remember why I used to love writing. I needed to do it for Ahmad because this was the only way I knew how to document the year we were going through. I needed to do it for the friends I had lost touch with but really hoped we could reconnect. When all those elements came together, it became something truly fulfilling, a source of happiness.
And Beyond Beirut gave me just that.
I started this because one of my birthday presents last year was a signed cover of a Backstreet Boys’ album- the very first one I bought. Somehow it triggered a need in me to write things down and share them with the world- I think nothing can get you as reflective as something reminding you of your childhood.
Slowly, it grew into this mishmash about growing up that always reflected how I was feeling.
So why wouldn’t I be bursting with pride at the final outcome?
I don’t know if I’m going to do a 25th project now that this one is over. I go back and forth on the idea of continuing to write everyday. On one hand, it is tiring to think of something on a daily basis. But on the other hand, I know that without a schedule, I might quit this thing altogether.
But I also know that there’s so much more left to say about adulthood, about love and marriage, about food, about the country we live in, and about the experiences we go through.
I owe much of this blog to my husband Ahmad. Not only did he so kindly allow me to write about our personal experiences and our relationship, but he encouraged me to keep this going, often thinking of many ideas when I couldn’t. The blog has allowed us to have many interesting conversations and in a way, brought us closer.
I am also grateful to anyone who has ever read any of my posts. Whether you are old friends or new, or just passing by, I thank you for your support and for taking the time to read my thoughts. It may not be the greatest work of art or the most informative, but I do hope that you learned something new or got a good laugh.
Beyond Beirut 
Congrats on a year! Ive loved almost every post of yours 🙂