150 days of madness. A look back (16th July, 2017)

I had something else to write for today, but I decided to shelve it for another day. Because yesterday marked 150 days since I started daily blogging. Today is 151.

150 days ago, things were very, very different...

16th February, 2017.

My palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.
My brow is tense, my hand is anything but steady.
My head is spinning, the decision that I'm making
is major, is intense, is everything, is all or nothing.

Excuses come in - where will I find the time?
Will I ever get drained and pained by this uphill climb?
What may I find, how will I keep up the grind?
Will anyone even listen to what I have in my mind?

My head, filled with dread, tried to look ahead
Tried to see that some stories just deserved to be read
That other people would read what I had to say
As long as I said it, and just started it today

No delaying and stalling and dallying was gonna work
I had to start today and hopefully someday see the perk
I had to share, and dare and bare and lose myself in there,
And hope that someday my effort would be worth the care.

But I did it. I gave myself the mandate - the challenge - that every day, I would share a story, a perspective, an opinion, a rant - something, anything - and it would be live on the internet at 10 am UK time every single day.

"I want to write about Rayo. I want to write about its history, its famous players and its struggles. I want to write about the football and the board, the politics and the fans, the players and the coaches. But more importantly, I want to give my take on the day-to-day coverage."

-My words on that fateful day

A 150 days later, and wow. Just wow. This blog, which started out in my mind as a Rayo-centric blog, has become much, much more that that.

The blog is called Pride of Vallekas, but I love the initials more. PoV - Point of View. It's not the PoV, but a PoV. On most days, a point of view gets uploaded.

But one some days it's your point of view. It's easy to forget that I write about something as silly as a game where 22 people kick a ball around. And yet, so far, fans, footballers, coaches and staff who share a crazy bond with this "silly" game have all shared their perspectives on a blog that was made this year.

That includes players (yes, plural) who've played at Barcelona, a player who won three consecutive league titles, the assistant technical director of Rayo Vallecano, an Ipswich legend, the nephew of Juan Sabas and the cousin of Santiago Martínez - both complete coincidences, a Kurd who supports Real Madrid, a Norwegian who supports Gimnàstic de Tarragona, and a Chinese who supports Real Jaén. And many, many, many more interesting people.

All of whom I'm thankful to.

And that doesn't stop. By any means. More collaborations, more perspectives, more projects. In fact, I'm launching a live, long term project tomorrow that fits this ethos exactly!

So I look forward to writing more. But I also look forward to hearing from you. If you have a perspective to share, a story to convey, feedback to rant, suggestions to express, or literally have anything to say - positive, negative or neutral, please contact me.

I want your PoV too.

Follow @Vallecanos1924

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The Pride of Vallekas

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