Rebuilding My Little Corner of the Internet

For years, I've wanted a place on the internet that genuinely felt like mine.

Not another social media profile.

Not another portfolio.

Not another website that starts with my job title and ends with a contact form.

Just a place where I could think out loud.

A place where I could write about what I'm learning, the places I travel, books that change the way I think, anime that stays with me long after the final episode, and the small experiences that often get forgotten.

I tried before.

The old version of girish.website did exactly what I needed at the time, but over the years I realised something.

It introduced what I do.

It didn't really introduce who I am.

So here we are.

Starting again.

Why rebuild?

The easiest option would have been to redesign the existing WordPress website.

Instead, I decided to rebuild everything from scratch.

Not because WordPress is bad.

Far from it.

WordPress helped millions of people start publishing online, and it did the same for me.

But this website has different goals now.

I wanted something that feels fast, simple, and entirely under my control.

I wanted every page to be intentional.

No plugins I don't need.

No unnecessary complexity.

Just content.

Choosing the stack

As someone who enjoys building products, choosing the technology was part of the fun.

This website is built using a modern stack that lets me focus on writing instead of maintaining infrastructure.

Next.js

Next.js gives me the flexibility to build a fast, modern website while keeping performance at the center of every decision.

Static pages, server rendering when needed, image optimization, and an excellent developer experience made it an easy choice.

Markdown

The most important feature of this website isn't the framework.

It's the words.

Everything I write lives as Markdown files.

That means my content isn't locked into a database or a specific platform.

Years from now, I should still be able to open every article as plain text.

I like that simplicity.

GitHub

Every change to this website lives in Git.

Not because it's necessary for a personal website, but because I enjoy seeing how things evolve over time.

Writing has versions too.

Sometimes the first draft isn't the one worth publishing.

Vercel

Deployment should disappear into the background.

Push a commit.

Wait a minute.

The website is live.

That's exactly the kind of workflow I wanted.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare sits in front of everything to improve performance, security, and reliability.

Hopefully, visitors won't even notice it's there.

That's usually a good sign.

More than a redesign

The biggest change isn't technical.

It's philosophical.

For a long time, I thought a personal website needed to market the person behind it.

Now I think it should simply represent them.

That's a very different goal.

You'll notice there isn't a huge emphasis on achievements or certifications.

Instead, you'll find photographs from my travels, thoughts that probably started as notes on my phone, books I'm reading, anime recommendations, ideas I'm exploring, and journal entries like this one.

Some of them might be useful.

Some might simply capture a moment in time.

Both are worth preserving.

Why "Journal" instead of "Blog"?

I've decided to call this section Journal.

That choice wasn't accidental.

A blog often feels like it's written for search engines.

A journal feels like it's written for people.

Some entries here will be technical.

Some will be about travel.

Others might simply be observations from everyday life.

There doesn't always need to be a lesson.

Sometimes documenting the experience is enough.

What's coming next?

This is only the beginning.

Over the next few months, you'll see this website slowly grow with new journal entries, photographs, book notes, travel stories, quotes that have stayed with me over the years, and ideas that are still finding their shape.

I'm not setting a publishing schedule.

I'm setting a habit.

That's far more important.

Thanks for stopping by

If you've somehow found your way here, thank you.

Whether you stay for a minute or return months from now, I hope you discover something that makes you pause, think, or smile.

After all, that's exactly what this little corner of the internet was built for.