Two weeks ago, I did a scary thing: I guest posted on someone else’s blog. via GIPHY For a lot of people, this might not be reaso...

Comfort-Zoned

Alexa Mintah

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Two weeks ago, I did a scary thing: I guest posted on someone else’s blog.

via GIPHY

For a lot of people, this might not be reason for such terror, but being an introvert who generally avoids anything that could start an internet debate guest posting about what might or might not turn out to be a controversial topic, also unsure how said topic would be received, this post was minorly anxiety-inducing (hahahaha, minorly; I’m lying). And it wasn't even that I thought people would be rude, that I was unsure about my opinion, or anything like that; it was just kind of a new thing for me. I'd only done two other guest posts in my 2-and-a-half years as a blogger, plus, although I had done faith posts on myblog, I'd never even come close to issues like representation or diversity, which was what I'd decided to guest post about because... I'm me.

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I knew that I'd done my best with it, but honestly, I was pretty nervous in the week before the post went live. Had I presented my idea well? Was the post interesting or did it just sound dumb or weird? Did my thought process come through correctly? Maybe I'd left the readers in confusion... OKAY, BUT DOES THIS ONE PART EVEN MAKE SENSE???And on and on, the questions whirled. But being a stubborn individual, I was determined to do the thing, so when I reached my self-appointed deadline, I declared it done and sent it off.

Fast forward to now, and I’m not disappointed that I did. :D

Now rewind to two months ago (I know; my TARDIS is bouncing all over the timeline): that's when I went to YoungArts. I'd traveled without my family before, but I'd never flown on a plane, never been that far from home without a familiar face in sight, and never presented my writing in front of a crowd in which I didn't know every single listener. It was a series of fantastic but somewhat scary experiences for someone with my level of anxiety—but I did those things too. I had an amazing time, and then, of course, I told all of you about it. At the end of that post, I talked about starting a linkup originally called Stepping Out Of My Comfort Zone, in which I would do things that, as the title so cleverly suggests, would force me outside of my comfort zone.

To make a long story short, here is that linkup

Comfort-Zoned is a bimonthly linkup in which I will post about something I've done recently to step out of my comfort zone and then invite you all to try something new as well. You can write a post, make a video, whatever you want, just somehow let me know that you're joining in and you have done a different thing. I know this is kind of a crazy idea and that—at least for me—it's a marginally (hahahaha, I'm lying again) terrifying prospect.

But I encourage you to do it all the same. :D

Because I'm lame, and I didn't realize till like two minutes ago that I had to have a Paypal account to use inlinkz, for this first round, I'm just gonna ask participants to post their links in the comments. Hopefully, by the time July rolls around, I'll be less lame, and I'll have figured this whole linkup thing out. ;)

Edit: Thanks to my fellow bloggers, I figured out what I was doing wrong and was able to get the linkup up and running without a paypal account. This is why the blogging community is fantastic. ;) Thanks everyone!

So, what do you all think of this idea? Do you intend to join? Have any idea what you'll do? Can't wait to see you in the comment section, and I do hope you decide to join me!

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