Six years and five months later, here I am writing my final blog post. I did not see this one coming. But if the sparse updating and the mostly impersonal posts I’ve written recently were any indication, this blog was headed to its decease. In the months that have gone by, I have lost inspiration and the drive to keep this blog going. I have mentioned to Knut and to a friend some time ago that I had been thinking of shutting all my presence online and taking a one year sabbatical – to give myself a new perspective and see what I would learn about life.

But then something happened. Death shakes you to the core and with it comes a realization that time goes by quickly and that time is best spent making memories with your loved ones. It made me realize that there are more important things in life than Prada and shopping wish lists. Or the silly fact that I wrote about them. I was sitting at a coffee shop yesterday and found this line written on a glass wall, “The days went by. Nobody told me that was life.” I thought it was profound and silently made a reassurance of the idea of ending my blog. I have spent much time focused on being present online, when the only ones I need to focus on are just an arm’s length away. My life should not be the one that I live on broadband, but the one that I live with the people who matter the most to me.

I have had a great six years and five months blogging. I will never regret the time that I spent building and enjoying my presence online, writing about my thoughts, wishes and silly purchases or gaining even just a modest following from loyal readers. God I will definitely miss those! It was through this blog that I got the chance to write a column for a magazine, something that I have always wanted to do ever since I started writing press releases in the Philippines almost a decade ago. It was also through this blog that I have made and met good friends, something I thought was remote from reality and for that I will always be grateful. It’s actually amazing this blogging thing. They say that all good things come to an end and I would like to think that my blog was one of the good things that have happened in my life. But now this is the end.

As I close this blog, I am also closing my Twitter account. I am keeping the blog online until I have archived all 980 posts and turned them into an actual journal I can keep in my bookshelf. I will be posting my last tweet not too far from now, but I am keeping the account open until I’ve finally accepted that my time there is also over. You can read my recent tweets, but you won’t find me there anymore.

I am looking forward to this new stage in my life – 30 and blogless. I know there will be new things to learn, new places to discover and new memories to make. I wish I could share them all with you but that will have to wait until we meet again sometime, somewhere.

Thank you for following me thus far. I wish you a good life.

Love, Mark