Starting again with a website is a chance to think about what I actually want it to do. I began this project on WordPress, which gave me a way to get a site online without building every part myself. As the site developed, though, I wanted it to work more clearly as a portfolio: a place to introduce myself, show my work, and make it easy for people to find the different parts of my online presence.
That change in purpose made me reconsider the tools I was using. I decided to move the site from WordPress to a more traditional build using HTML and CSS. It is a simpler foundation for the kind of personal website I want, and it gives me a more direct way to shape how each page looks and feels.
When a portfolio needs too many plugins
WordPress offers a wide range of features, but I found that making it behave like the portfolio I had in mind often required a lot of plugins. Each one could help with a particular feature or design need, but the overall setup started to feel more complicated than the site itself. Instead of focusing on how to present a project, I could find myself thinking about which extra tool might be needed to make the page work as I wanted.
There is nothing wrong with plugins; they can be useful and save time. The difficulty for me was that the portfolio began to depend on several separate pieces to achieve a relatively straightforward result. I wanted the main parts of the site—its pages, project cards, navigation, and responsive layout—to be easier to understand together. A smaller, more direct build felt like a better fit for that goal.
A more direct way to make changes
I also found WordPress’s newer in-browser editor complicated to use. It has many controls and ways to arrange content, but I did not always find it easy to see how the different pieces fitted together. A small change could feel less direct than I expected, especially when I was trying to keep the layout consistent across the site.
Working with HTML and CSS gives me a clearer relationship between the page and the code behind it. HTML describes the content and its structure; CSS controls the presentation, spacing, and layout. When I want to adjust a heading or change how a section sits on a smaller screen, I can work with the relevant markup and styles directly. That approach asks me to be more deliberate, but it also makes the decisions easier for me to follow.
A fresh foundation
Moving away from WordPress does not mean that every part of the site becomes effortless. I now have to take responsibility for the details that a platform or plugin might otherwise handle, including checking the layout on different screens and keeping the pages consistent. But that responsibility comes with a useful level of control. I can build the site around the way I want to present my writing, media work, and portfolio instead of adapting those ideas to a collection of tools.
This new website is a fresh start: a simpler foundation that I can keep learning from and building on. I want it to remain clear and easy to explore as I add projects and, now, a place for longer writing. The move to HTML and CSS is not just a technical change; it is a chance to make the website feel more like my own and give it room to grow in the direction I choose.