2016 Reflections

I’ll start this post by wishing you all a wonderful and Happy 2017! Secondly, I must apologize for being MIA for the past couple of weeks. The weeks leading up to the holidays were a bit chaotic to the point where I was more behind than ever. The day job was totally kicking my ass, and then to make matters worse I spontaneously decided to migrate from Blogger to WordPress (yes, I was still on Blogger!). This task had been on my to-do list for over a year at least and I decided last minute (on the 26th) to make the switch to start 2017 off the right way.

And so here we are, a brand new year ahead of us. As well, a time for reflections on the past year in an effort to identify areas where opportunity to improve may exist. 2016 surpassed any expectations I had as a blogger. I was fortunate enough to meet some fellow bloggers from Toronto, attend fun events, and I had the opportunity to work with some beloved brands that I could’ve only dreamed of a year ago – I’m very much looking forward to 2017 and the journey that lies ahead.

One of the biggest struggles that I faced throughout last year was how to be myself online. Seems  simple enough, but when you have to fully put yourself out there and expose yourself to criticism we tend to hide behind what’s safe. When I first started blogging, I avoided all social media like the plague. And even went out of my way to ensure that no one would find me locally. Looking back on that now, it seems rather silly and I realize that was probably one of the biggest blogger mistakes I could have made. But I cannot have regrets as I was being true to myself at the time.

Although as time progressed and I became more comfortable with blogging and social media I made it a point to keep as much of my personal life out of the blog. But in an attempt to keep it ‘clean’ and ‘professional’ I quickly realized that I was losing myself and creating the same parameters that keep me confined at my day job. Strangely enough, I had even drafted a blog post about this same topic previously as it had been causing me a bit of anguish, but never published it because of aforementioned reasons!

Ultimately, after many deep discussions with my Love, the most beautiful thing occurred to me the other day. I have learned and come to accept that we are all individuals beautiful in our own unique  ways and we each have our own journey. Other people’s journeys are not always meant for us, we are meant to experience things in our own special way. And most importantly, there is nothing wrong with that! Selling out and pretending to be someone I’m not in the hopes of scoring more attention or even to gain opportunities has never been my thing. But I can definitely learn how to be more comfortable in my own skin and have confidence when being transparent with my life.

Before I conclude this post, I did want to thank each and every one of you that has been a part of this journey with me! Thank you so much for being a part of my blog, social, and life! So here’s to 2017 and a New Year of being yourself, loving who you are, and not being afraid to share that with the world!

xo