400th Blog Post: Reflections & the Growth of a Blogger

400. Wow. I cannot believe that this is my 400th post and that I am still blogging.

Growing up, I've gone through many blogs, but somehow this one stuck. And for a very, very, long time, I didn't know what 'kind' of blogger I was, but I guess it was always obvious that this was a writing/life blog, even when I didn't know it then.

My first post in February 17, 2012 was one of my favorite poems I'd ever written, Victim to Infinite Sleep. It was actually written in the Fall of 2009 when I was going through an awful breakup, losing my first love, and abused OTC sleep aids. When I posted it on my blog in 2012, it was simply a way for me to store my poems in one place.

In the Fall of 2011, I had changed my major to creative writing and I was actually pretty bad at it in the beginning. You can see from my short story "Butterfly" that I had written for an intro to Fiction class that I really sucked at tenses. I blame that on two straight years of lab and math classes that only require you to write in bullet points and equations. The forced dialogue and melodramatics definitely mark me as a rookie. Though I criticize myself, I also look back at it fondly and know that I can rewrite this and make it better. But for now, I like that it was a starting point in fiction and it's something I reread as a reference point. Compare that to my manuscripts now, I know I've come so far.

Then strangely, I had this weird idea of becoming a food blogger? Ha! Though my mint chocolate cookies were amazing, though! I'll have to make them again soon. Click here for the recipe. I'm glad that ship has sailed.

With occasional posts about reflections, and academia after, thus began me posting about anything really. Until I had this crazy idea to write a manuscript which became M1 and will probably stay shelved for a long while! Then in the Summer of 2013, lots of things happened: I graduated, fell in love, moved to Seattle, and began working which all contributed to my lack of blogging during this time. But by November I recommitted to blogging with this post and never stopped since. After completing two first drafts by the end of 2013, I finally started feeling like a writer and a blogger.

Fast forward to 2014 and now I've become confident in posting about my life, the places that I've been, awesome books, and delicious food adventures. I've made blogging friends in addition to real life ones, tried my hand at querying, and continued to always write despite the lulls in between.

This is my life as told in blog form. And despite the ups, downs, and turnarounds, I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for reading about my life and essentially becoming a part of it.

Cheers to 400 blog posts and so much more.