End of the Year Appreciation

With today being December 31st, it is no secret that people nationwide are making last minute attempts at creating New Years Resolutions and fine-tuning their goals for the upcoming year. What I find interesting (even though I’m guilty of it as well) is that so many of us wait until January 1st to begin to follow through with ways we believe will better us. If our resolutions don’t work, or if we simply cannot stick to the plan we set out for ourselves, well, there’s always next January 1st for us to try again.

If we could move past the concept of New Year’s Resolutions, we could work on continuously trying to better ourselves. Moreover, we’ll have an entire year to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, rather than just waiting for a “re-do” twelve months from now. What is important for us to remember during these upcoming weeks of “resolutioning” (a new verb that’s quite fitting for this time of year) is that one minor setback is not a failure; we must not allow ourselves to get discouraged if things do not go according to plan. There is always tomorrow to wake up refreshed and begin from where we last left off. If we can view New Year’s Resolutions as the Year’s Resolutions, maybe we won’t be so harsh on ourselves. And maybe we’ll realize that our goals can be fought for at any given moment of any given day—not just for the first few days in January.

With that being said, one goal that I set for myself this past year was to continue blogging, since I had taken an extended break before the year began. Just this year alone, individuals from all around the world stopped by my site to read what I had to say. To me, there would be nothing more rewarding than knowing that one person (not including my mother) occasionally glances through my site. However, to find out that more than 2,000 visitors from sixty-nine different countries read my thoughts, experiences, and stories throughout the year is beyond overwhelming.

Just this year alone, my blog has had more visitors than the last three years combined. To my fellow bloggers, readers, and friends from 2015, I extend my sincerest appreciation and gratitude for your support. (In the tag section of this post, I’ve included the country of each visitor throughout this past year as a special way of saying thank you since it’s much easier than hand-written notes).

May 2016 be a year to remember, and may all of our resolutions come to fruition, regardless of any potential setbacks we may experience along the way. Happy New Year to all of you, and thank you, once again.

My 2015 Blogging Challenge and Goal for the Year

With the New Year having just begun, I wanted to set some kind of blogging challenge/goal for myself for this next year. A popular challenge that I’ve noticed is to post a picture a day but seeing as I’m just rebooting my blog, I want to make sure to set a realistic goal for myself. Since the weekends are meant to be a time to relax and refresh, I’ve decided to post a picture each weekend as a constant reminder of the beauty in our surrounding environment.

In today’s society, it’s easy to get caught up in technology and social media, and unfortunately we focus so much of our time and energy on our cell phones and computers that we tend to forget what is around us and truly take advantage of it. So my blogging challenge for 2015 also happens to be a goal of mine for this next year. The goal is to enjoy all that is around me, with hopes of putting aside my technological distractions and living in the present moment.

With that being said, this first picture I’d like to share with you is from a trip to North Carolina that I took last spring. When I put my social media craze on hold and decided to go for a walk outside, I came across this beautiful sunset. Enjoy your Saturday!

North Carolina Spring 2014

 

New Year’s Blogging

So I keep getting this voice in my head that continuously reminds me that I haven’t blogged in almost a year. And the last time I posted something was about how I was going to start posting more often since I had been slacking. Well, you all can understand how life gets in the way and how some of us tend to put things off until we “find the time,” but I’m tired of making excuses so here we go.

With nearly fifteen minutes left in 2013, I wanted to post something committing to making a promise. I didn’t want to wait until next year to start anew because I wanted to end this year and begin the next one on a positive note. I will blog more throughout this upcoming year. There. I said it and now it’s published for the WordPress world to see.

This past year has been a great one, and I can’t exclaim how fortunate I have been throughout 2013. With another year soon to be in the past and a new one arriving shortly, I think it’s safe to say that 2014 is going to be a year filled with love, happiness, blessings, and incredible opportunities for each and every one of us. I hope you all have a great evening enjoying the remnants of 2013 and welcoming in the start of a New Year, and remember, it’s never too late to make any kind of resolution (Says my guilty conscience from not blogging enough this past year). Happy New Year to each of you and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

It has been quite some time since I consistently posted here on WordPress. I can use the excuses of having been busy with classes, finals, the daily stressors that use up our focus and energy, or I could just pick one out of a hat, because believe me, there are plenty of excuses I’ve been holding onto.  However, in the scheme of things, I don’t really have a legitimate excuse to not have been blogging, except for the fact that I was tired. Since my return from Spain in August, I no longer had exciting adventures to share. Any and all progress made with my book had come to a standstill, so I hid from writing. I avoided it at all costs and tried to put my focus anywhere else that I could. However, in the end, for us bloggers and writers, there is no avoiding writing so here I am, facing my fear and returning to the blogging world. There is a lot to talk about since my absence so I hope you’re prepared. Not to mention, I hope I’m prepared too. And within the next few weeks, I will be working on independent publishing so that I can finally accomplish the goal of publishing my book. This is where I would insert the saying, “Here goes nothing,” but I’d like to rephrase that into a more positive one. There is no harm in trying to accomplish your goals, for regardless of how successful you think you may or not be, you’ll always be successful for having known that you did what you set out to do. So as I was saying, “Here goes something.”