Busy busy busy… We are about a month away from a 5 year anniversary mark for this blog and I thought I’d look back on the last 5 years and where we are now…

Over the last few weeks I’ve contemplated shutting down lifewithjson because I feel like I can’t commit to this as much as I used to. I think I’ve done one photoshoot this year (or at least I hope I did), and I’ve barely had time or motivation to do much else in the way of cars. I know it’s because of Aria and I know as she gets older, I’ll get back into my usual routine but lately I’ve got nothing. Believe me though, I still look at car parts every day and think about what I want to do next LOL.

I was blogging back in 2008 on a different platform, and then I quit because we had started illmotion. I still like to think illmotion was something great and while it may not be as big as it once were, I’m still proud to have been a part of it. The guys continue putting on Sunday School each year and continue donating and putting the money raised to good efforts that we’ve been doing since it started. At that time, blogs/groups/features were something few and far between. It was the era of Fatlace/Hellaflush and Canibeat. Elvis and Stance Nation came along almost exactly at the same time and we had collaborated for such a small window before we realized our views were quite different. illmotion shined in a way that gave some sort of light to the quickly-diminishing scene in Calgary – and I like to think Canada. It got people excited, and people loved being able to associate with a group. This was an amazing thing because selection was so rare and you were supporting the aforementioned groups or nothing at all at the time. People didn’t care, they just thought it was cool. You fast-forward to today and you have groups left, right, and center. From things like LonelyDumpedScrapeSquad, to Kawaii-something-Lovers. It’s really your choice out of hundreds on who you want to associate with and you could now sticker bomb your windshield with all the vinyl decals if you wanted to. I’m not saying illmotion started it, but it certainly felt like we were – even in the slightest – a part of that boom.

It’s great – I mean, I think it’s these groups of friends or even individuals that just want a piece of the pie and they’re going to do it their own way. It’s all about followers and likes now rather than blog hits and features. It’s interesting to think about how things have changed over the last 8-10 years – there are kids in high school that are driving cars I wish I had now. I was driving a 1990 Corolla with rust, LED windshield washer nozzles and a frosted Superman decal. I was making $5.95/hour busting my ass off just to afford a cheeseburger at lunch. What the f*** happened?

On the other side of my shoulder sits Diana – she’s like my second opinion – the angel to the devil sitting on the other side. She has really been against the idea of shutting it down because this blog has become so much more than just cars – it’s literally my/our life. I still remember my first post on November 28, 2011. I started off just posting random pics I edited and stuff that I was doing with my car. I looked up to the likes of RA64Freddy and JDMEGO – they were the epitome of automotive-inspired blogs. My goal for the blog was never to be internet famous or to make money… I just love taking pictures and I loved sharing them. It started off just posting whatever cool things I could find, or whatever cool shots I took to projects on the car, on the house, to just life. It wasn’t until a few years after I started the blog that it really started to be true to its name. It was interesting because as I started posting non-car related stuff, the demographic shifted slightly and I started getting moms and people that would normally never care about my site started to comment and email me. It’s become so eclectic that I’m not even sure what type of blog I have anymore. It’s literally just my life.

Since 2011, the blog has really evolved to reflect me personally. I remember back when I was just starting it up, I didn’t know what to call it – I never really had a blog name. It was always just my name – boring. I didn’t have an identity, and I wanted something catchy, something that would stick and have some ring to it and stand the test of time. Derrick was the one that actually gave birth to the name – lifewithjson. Funny coincidence because he (Derrick) jokingly suggested it taking the idea from Life with Derek – the show on the Family Channel. 5 years later, lifewithjson is still around. Some may think that I’ve posted so much on here that it’s like they know me personally – I truly appreciate stuff like that. It might be creepy to some, but I know the limits of what not to post, too. I love people coming up to me and telling me they love the blog and how they really liked this post or that post. At the end of the day, that’s really why I do this – because I enjoy the gratification of providing a good read to people – even if it is just one post. It reflects all of the people that I’ve met and cars that I’ve had the pleasure of shooting. It’s where I’ve developed my photography skills and the same place I’ve refined it. There are posts that I don’t even remember posting and when I go back and think about it, underneath all of the photoshoots and car stuff, there’s a lot of sentimental stuff here that would be lost in the abyss forever once I hit “delete”. So… Will I shut it down? No, probably not now. Will the blog change? Most likely… It has been changing since 2011 and I’m still here, so why not? Thank you for everyone that still sticks around and for anyone that’s new – you got 5 years of posts to catch up on. I promise it’s all worth it. Here’s to another 5 years (I hope)!