Now we are three
Millennial Gent is three years old today. When it comes to writing and planning this blog, I usually end up asking two questions of myself: ‘Why am I writing this?’ and ‘What is Millennial Gent?’
This blog spawned out of a couple of old blogs I had done random scribblings on, without ever putting too much thought or direction behind them. In hindsight, that was an error. There are people who started blogs about the same time as I first did who stuck with it and are now making a very comfortable living off them. But you live and learn.
Either way, the concept of Millennial Gent was always quite fluid. It was – and, in many respects, is – simultaneously a personal online magazine, a journal and a collection of random thoughts and reflections. At best, it was a scrapbook of life.
Unlike many other websites which bear similar monikers, this cannot claim to be a guide of any sort. Reading this will not make you more or less of a Millennial Gent. In large part, that is because the first part of that title is a mathematical fact of when you were born; despite what the media would say, it has nothing to do with your outlook, political leanings or thoughts on avocado toast as a brunch food. As far as the second part goes, there was a time when the term “Gent” was assigned according to class or education. That is very much no longer the case and there would be a strong argument to be made that it has outgrown its old meaning and is seeking a new one. The term itself is not unlike this blog in that respect.
However, I think that is the point. This blog is not aspirational. I don’t have special insights or expertise I can share with you. As some of you many know, I am a journalist by trade and I spend most of my time expounding facts and ideas for people, but none of them really cross over to what I write here.
In fact, it was a look at the hashtags which I use regularly on Instagram, and the corresponding topics which define most of my posts, that gave me an insight into what this blog has become – indeed, what it always was. It is my space to share interesting things I have learned.
Some of that is quite focussed.
The #ShortManStyle tag largely denotes my attempts to navigate the world of style and sartorialism. Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I am short (5’5” in height) and anyone who has known me for any length of time will know that “stylish” is not a word you would have attached to me for most of my life. I have somewhat rectified that in recent years. But I am also aware that the options for shorter men out there are limited, so anything I learn or find, I share here.
The same goes for my food & drink posts, which largely fall under the auspices of #SufferingCarnivore and #DailyGrind. The former covering my place as a life-long carnivore discovering the boundless possibilities of vegan cuisine through my vegan better half; the latter looks at the coffee brands and shops I come across as I indulge my growing passion for a great cup of coffee.
None of these are fields I am an expert in. Nor, it must be said, are travel, culture or anything else I pull into my sphere of interest. But all of this reflects things I have found which seem new and interesting and which I want to share with other people.
That desire is likely to manifest itself in the coming years in more posts on topics such as independent businesses, ocean conservation and tequila. All three of these are topics which interest me, both because of the people involved and what they produce, and which I’ll share my discoveries about on here.
On reflection, I suppose I was not quite accurate earlier. I have no specific field of knowledge or insight to share here. But I am generally interested in things and have spent the last decade or so honing the art of finding out about people and things and sharing those discoveries.
And that is the spirit in which Millennial Gent and I will continue. Hopefully there will be something of interest to you here – and if you know where to get a great cup of coffee or brilliantly made pair or trousers for a smaller man, then give me a shout.