Reflecting on 2015: Reading

After doing that long End of Year Survey, I really don’t need to do this but I enjoy doing these reflection pieces, especially for my reading progress, so here I am with another.

The theme for 2015 was Improve and I did so in my blogging and reading. I smashed my Goodreads Reading Challenge by reading a whopping 57 books, which is a lot for me to read in a year, especially in a year that was super busy. Ten of the total were graphic novels and comics because since discovering Booktube, my interest in comics have grown. I also read a short story for my Book Riot Reading Challenge, which I plan to participate in again this year. The majority of authors I read were new to me and again this is because of Booktube. It’s one of the best bookish discoveries I made last year. I discovered so many new books and authors and my interest and love of reading and books have grown. The positive/negative backlash of that is that I bought too many books last year as well to quench my growing interest in new reading material. I feel so guilty about it that I refuse to count how many books I bought. Knowing it’s a lot is enough.

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Reflecting on 2015: Blogging

Here’s an area of my life where I succeeded in applying my theme for 2015. I improved in my blogging so much so that I’m surprised by how much my blog has grown and how much I’ve posted.

I’m thankful for all the followers I’ve gained this year. My blog now has 301 followers at the time I’m typing this on New Year’s Day and I’m Happy, Happy, Happy and so, so Thankful that you all have decided to follow along, read my posts, and comment whenever you feel like it. Thank you so much! 😀

I’m also grateful for all the award nominations I’ve received as well. I think those awards are a great way to show appreciation for the work bloggers produce. Thank you all!!

I am proud of myself for all I’ve accomplished, and that I stuck with this blog, so I’ll reward myself with some ice cream later today. I tried a few new things like engaging in blogging events like posting tags and memes and even once participating in a readathon, Bout of Books. Along with those new posts, I also did Writing Myths, where I created myths based on a prompt, which were fun. My plan was to complete them by the end of 2015 but I have 3 more to go.

Looking ahead, I plan to continue on the track I’m on. I don’t have a set schedule and I plan to keep it that way because I tend to rebel against schedules I’m aware of. I also plan to post book reviews soon after completing the books, but I’m not sure how successful I’ll be with that. In 2015, I sometimes posted publishing news roundups, more as a way to sort of practice for my job, but those posts weren’t consistent. I’ve decided to continue with it and be a bit more regular. And, if I read as many articles as I did in 2015, I’ll do that weekly/biweekly articles roundup post that I kept mentioning but never did.

All that sounds like a lot when I think of the book reviews and other random posts I usually do but I think I’ll do fine. I’m trying to be more positive too. So, here’s to a new year filled with fun blogging adventures.

Happy New Years Everyone! 😀

And thank you for visiting, reading, liking, commenting, and following. 🙂

Reflecting on 2015: Life

I think it was the year after college, when I secured a job, that I started giving themes to my years. I felt so lucky when I got that job in 2012. I was stressed because the meagre pay from my internship was not enough to cover my student loan bills. But when the new year came, I was blessed with a salaried job and I was happy. The theme for that year was Hope. Hope that things would continue to improve and they did.

My theme for 2015 was Improve. Though my professional life had improved in 2014, my personal one wasn’t where I wanted it to be by the end of that year so I decided that 2015 would be about improving all facets of my life, especially my health and relationships. I can’t say I was overall successful, but I made an effort and have made progress in my attempts to improve. However, I made mistakes along the way.

And though those mistakes hurt because of how harshly I sometimes berate myself, they caused me to reflect on my habits and note where further improvement is needed. They also alerted me to things I need to let go. I’ve realized that often things aren’t as bad as I think they are and going back to where I started doesn’t always mean to regress. Sometimes returning to that starting point is a progress. It’s all a matter of perspective.

Realizing these points have made me alter my goals some. I have changed, more than I realized, since graduating college but I still carried the hang-ups and goals I had since then. I definitely want to drop those hang-ups and loosen the hold of old goals that are no longer needed. My situation has changed. I have changed and so too my goals.

At first my theme for 2016 was going to be something like “Act Smarter” because I’m still smarting from my mistakes. But I think for 2016 my theme will be a phrase:

It’s all a matter of perspective.