Checking In - UFC 306, Perspective, Guide to Get Through Election Season :)

What I'm up to, a little preview of the big UFC 306 event, and a quick reminder to those who need it right now

Happy Friday, it’s been a long time since I posted here. I wanted to be consistent with this when I started, but shit happens and life gets in the way. Now that the summer is ending, I’m going to try to post here weekly - just random topics and thoughts I have throughout the week.

Life Update

I have been continuing my work as a freelance writer, and that has been quite the experience. It’s another reason I think I was born about 20 years too late—writers are a dying breed in today’s media landscape. AI-coded content and video have taken over the world, causing the amount of work for writers like me to dwindle. I will keep hope that there will be a comeback for writers as people will recognize AI just doesn’t do it like we can.

I recently lost a big client of mine that was more than half of my workload, and income. I’ve been scrambling and trying to find new work and keep this dream of being a full-time writer alive, but it’s tough out there.

As a stutterer, it’s very daunting to imagine having to try to find a job at a corporate office of a bigger company. I tried that out of college and companies just don’t want guys who can’t talk on the phone, lead meetings, or even get through an interview. But it will work out, I have faith.

I’ve been writing for a big publisher called TheSportster, a Canadian-based publisher that used to only cover professional wrestling, but has expanded to MMA and boxing. Feel free to follow that and keep up on my work over there. Here’s the link to my writer profile: https://www.thesportster.com/author/colten-whaley/

I have some potential clients and work that will be coming in, so I am excited about that. All I need is another chance and I know I will make it happen for myself.

UFC 306

I am so grateful I get paid to cover my favorite sports MMA and boxing. It’s been so interesting and fun to be fully immersed in combat sports and get to use my writing skills and knowledge every day.

This weekend is a very exciting event in Las Vegas at The Sphere. One of my favorite athletes will be headlining and the production of the event will be something nobody has ever seen in sports. It is well worth tuning in for on Saturday night.

My analysis of the main event will be published later today on TheSportster - I will share that on my stories.

Perspective and The Election

I will never get on here and preach about anything to you all, but I have been thinking a lot about the current state of the country and the world, along with the people around me.

If any of you are sharing the struggle I have with social media lately and seeing all these people on your screen being nasty, negative, and overall really shitty; I have something to think about.

Rethink about the people you see commenting and posting hateful things. They are probably not someone you even like being around in person. Usually, those people are either so unaware of themselves or just crappy humans in real life too. So who cares?

The election coming up is going to cause a lot of division. That’s the world we live in now with social media. The groups of people who are opposite of you and rude, used to be people you don’t even hear from. But now you are forced to because of the algorithm on Facebook, Instagram, etc.

My senior capstone project at CSBSJU was about social media related to Darwin’s theory of evolution. I personally don’t think humans were ready for social media. We aren’t evolved to be able to handle this kind of communication. We aren’t supposed to be able to hear someone from across the country complaining, and people aren’t supposed to be able to talk shit without any consequences.

Humans have been evolving their communication methods for thousands and thousands of years. We are meant to have people in front of us, seeing their emotions in their eyes, using hand gestures, and inflection in our speech. We also are supposed to be able to punch somebody in the throat if they deserve it. That is all gone with social media.

Now I’m rambling, but all I wanted to do is give some advice to those who might need it right now.

• Don’t read comment sections. They are full of people who can’t even comprehend the post they are commenting on, and people who just want to fire others up.

• You aren’t the main character in this life. Everybody has a different perspective and has gone through different things. Your political views aren’t the correct ones in others’ lives. Stop being so arrogant and close-minded.

• Don’t lose friends because of political views, but don’t be afraid to lose them over how they treat people. Don’t judge others, but if you do, judge people on how they make others feel.

• Remember, your Facebook algorithm is made for you to see things you like. You post something and the same people see it and agree with you. The world isn’t like that. Go and talk to someone outside of the same 10 people who like and comment on your posts every time, you’ll learn a lot.

• The people you don’t like on social media, are the same people you probably don’t like in person. So ignore them like you would in real life.

• It’s very rare you’ll ever see a secure, happy, and good person post on social media and be negative. Those are people who are miserable, so who cares what they say? You don’t want to be like them anyway.

Final thoughts

Please don’t take this as me preaching to you all and telling you what to do and how to live life. I am lost and just trying to figure it all out and be happy. I don’t know anything about life besides what I have experienced. Maybe this will serve as a reminder that that’s the case with us all. Lead with love and be nice to each other, nothing is worth being mean and ruining somebody else’s day.

This won’t be the format of these posts going forward, I just wanted to get back into my personal blog, update the subscribers, and restart this thing! I will be pulling it out of my ass every week and adding new things that others might enjoy reading. Maybe book reviews, links to more pieces of mine, and more.

Thank you all for reading and thanks to all my friends, family, and my girlfriend for being there for me through some tough times this year. I am excited to end the year off on a high note and keep chasing dreams :)

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- Colten

A perfect reminder from the great and powerful, Ted Lasso:

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