A Personal Hiatus: When does it all end?

The Human

Things occur in our personal lives that sometimes provide obstacles to our usual routines. I realise I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks; this goes both for steemit as well as other social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Thing is, I was both busier and more disturbed. I have also been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome recently, which has nothing to do with me being disturbed. Nonetheless, it is fascinating as I am able to understand myself more.

Busy Summer

Currently, I have a part-time job, around 22-hours per week. Yesterday, I had to submit my undergrad thesis, which was titled
The Relationship between Mental Wellbeing and Internet Gaming Disorder: A Quantitative Study amongst University Students.

I have enjoyed working on it, even though with a small sample, the margin of error was huge and the results were limited. I will post more about that after it's corrected and the university library puts online access to it.

The Artist

I still consider myself an artist, but my priorities have changed. Building social media and a following is essential to anything nowadays. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Without social support, our work tends to lie in the hands of a few editors and publishers. On the other hand, the effort to build on a social following is not easy, especially to people who lack social skills as I do. If a person like me spends too much effort online, the rewards are still not that big and I am sacrificing my time from other creative activities and learning opportunities, and hence, I have not spent much time on here. I still remained in some productive discord communities, even though the extent to what my social spirit allowed me to.

Instead, I have been focusing on reading, writing and editing. Improving my skills is important. Earlier this month, I submitted two poems for the National Contest of Poetry in Malta; even though I am not expecting the best results, I had to try. I'm also looking to mainstream my poetry and send it to magazines and journals where it can thrive. Not all poetry is adaptable for mainstream publishing, and thus, I still will be posting some here, but to a limited extent, as it is not my primary focus.

Where do I go from here?

However, as I am still reading books, I will continue posting book reviews. I have finished reading The Hate U Give and The Rosie Project, and I have already drafted a couple of book reviews, which I will post in due time. In the meantime, I have applied for another course, which could mean that it will take more of my time (gladly). I cannot predict my future, but I acknowledge that I will not write as frequently here. I am also trying to write a couple of short stories, which is proving to be quite challenging, yet interesting. I thank everyone on steemit for the support that they have given me, and I hope that I continue to remain, at least, partially active. I hope you understand my position.

Kind Regards,
Jeremy Mifsud