My One Year Blogiversary! | Reflections and Gratitudes

Three hundred and sixty-nine days ago (yes, I know I’m late), I pressed ‘publish’ on my very first blog post. It wasn’t a lot–just an introduction to my blog and a little bit about myself.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Pages of Starlight. I thought I’d take a quick opportunity to talk a little about myself and the blog. My name is Lotus and I love reading and the creative arts, specifically photography and writing. I’m a young teen with a love for fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction novels. I wanted a place to share my thoughts and adventures about them, so I created this blog.

The name ‘Pages of Starlight’ comes from a few different things. Starlight is a name that I hold close. When I was younger, I had an imaginary dragon friend named Starlight. I went on an abundance of adventures with my friend. This imaginary dragon is what inspired me into writing. The ‘pages’ part relates to pages of a book and also pages of writing. To add on, I like astronomy, so the word ‘starlight’ fits together with all of it.

On my blog, I’ll post books reviews, mainly middle grade and YA, discussions, and also some of my photography. There will be a little bit on writing, though that won’t be very frequent.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope you continue to read my blog and enjoy it.

With just this simple, introduction post, it gave me a rush of adrenaline. I had created this blog; it was official. I had my own little corner of the internet where I could share my opinions and thoughts.

I didn’t realize how much my world would change from that single post.

During the time that I made Pages of Starlight, there was a lot happening in my life. Most of it wasn’t good. So I started this blog and I threw myself into it. I dedicated a lot of time to this blog, using it partly as a distraction from the world around me.

For the first few months, I wasn’t interacting a lot with the blogging community. I knew there were other book bloggers out there–I read a bunch of them before starting mine–but I felt a bit nervous to talk to them. I’ve always been on the introverted side, but I knew that in order to bring people in, I would have to reach out. And eventually, I did. After getting up the nerve to post a comment on another blog, I realized that there was nothing bad about it. People love it when others show their appreciation for a post they wrote. Bloggers in the bookish community are kind and eager to chat with you.

Once I got more comfortable with talking to others, I found, that in return, people began discovering my blog. Not a lot, but I was ecstatic to know that other people were interested in my posts. Whenever someone I didn’t know left a like or comment on my blog, I’d go check out their blog. Bloghopping is like a huge chain reaction: you look at one blog and it leads to other blogs and those blogs lead to even more.

As I continued interacting with a wider range of people, I started to focus more on the quality of my posts, over the quantity. Beforehand, I (unfortunately) hadn’t focused a lot on how well-written and thought out they were. I wanted to publish posts I was really proud of and pleased with. Once I began doing that, I noticed that I was getting more interaction with other bloggers and it made me so happy that people were finding my blog.

A little while into blogging, I participated in my first weekly meme, Top Ten Tuesday, where I talked about my favorite reads of 2020. I still do Top Ten Tuesday’s, though not as often; I haven’t done one since before my hiatus. After I did a TTT post, I began discovering other memes that occurred in the blogosphere, such as WWW Wednesday and Let’s Talk Bookish, the latter which I still participate in today. Book tags are something that came a little while later. My first one was the Get to Know Ya Book Tag, but the first one I got tagged for was the Zodiac Books + Music Tag. I was so amazed that someone would think of my blog.

Twelve months, a hiatus, and a blog redesign later, we come to today. Over the course of the past year, we’ve reached 107 followers. I can’t express how grateful I am for all the people who have read my posts and interacted with me; it means the world to me to know that people enjoy my content.

To celebrate, I make cookies! Alfajores, to be specific. My mom and I technically made these for Christmas, but my blogiversay is on the 22nd, so it kind of coincides with the holiday. They tasted amazing and I always forget how messy they are when you eat them. Totally worth it, though.

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To blogging and the bookish community, thank you for. . .

Helping me read more diversely – Before I started blogging, I read books, of course, but I didn’t pay attention to the diversity representation in them. I’m a Chinese adoptee, so when I was young, my mom would find books with Asian representation so I could imagine myself in the character’s roles. Beyond that, I didn’t think about other diverse groups. However, once I started blogging, I was immersed in a world of people who promote books with different diverse representations. Within the past year, I’ve read books with different racial groups, representation within the LGBTQ+ community, and characters with varying disabilities. I now seek out books with diverse representation; I’m interested in learning how people live their lives with the differences they have.

Showing me that my opinions matter – Like I’ve said about a million times, I’m on the shyer side. In real life, I don’t share my opinions as much as I do on this blog. I mean, this blog is all about my opinions, but the bookish community has shown me how much my opinions matter and are valued. I’ve also become more confident in sharing my thoughts. I don’t have that hesitation to share my opinions, whether they be popular or not.

Introducing me to a bunch of amazing people – Book blogging wouldn’t be the same without the community it has. I’ve met so many incredible people whom I can talk with about books to my heart’s content. I’m grateful to every person I’ve had a conversation with because I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.

Teaching me a bit of HTML – Before blogging, if I had looked at the code editor for a post, it would look like a lot of gibberish to me. Now, I actually understand that code, or at least some of it. I am by no means an expert, not even close, but I can do some basic coding on WordPress, like toggle buttons and changing the size of the text within a paragraph. I also figured out how to bold and italicize with HTML code.

Exercising my writing skills – I’ve said this before, but I’m a writer. My brain comes up with stories and some of them, I write down. Before blogging, that was about the extent of what my writing was, not including all the English assignments in school. Now, I write almost every single day because I have this blog. Whether it be writing a post or editing one, blogging has improved my writing (I hope) and editing skills. I’ve also been paying closer attention to word choice because I notice I use the words ‘really’ and ‘very’ a lot.

My Favorite Blog Posts

Libby: All About the Platform and How it Works Libby is seriously my lifeline, I use it so much. I had a lot fun writing this post and sharing what I know about how it works. Who wouldn’t want a reading app that’s completely free where you can get books from your public library?

Mini Reviews: A Collection of LGBTQ+ Books in Honor of Pride Month I read books featuring characters in the LGBTQ+ community and reviewed four of them in this post. All of them were amazing and I even got a five star read from one of them!

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag Of course I had to do this tag, it’s tradition in the book blogging community! It was super fun putting this post together and getting to gush about all the books I’d read so far in 2021.

My Experience With Camp NaNoWriMo|Looking Back on my Goals and What I Accomplished Last July, I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo, with hopes of completing my third draft of my WIP. Unfortunately, I had a lot going on and didn’t finish it. However, I still accomplished a lot and shared a small reflection, along with some next steps.

The Mysterious Benedict Society Book Tag (Original!) I made this a while ago, in honor of the Mysterious Benedict Society getting its own TV show. I had a great time creating the graphics and prompts, as well as sharing my love of the book series!

Thank Yous

During this past year, I’ve met so many amazing people. Thank you all for continuing to motivate and support me, for all the discussions we’ve had, and for lengthening my TBR. (Seriously, I love book recommendations.) There are so many people I’m grateful for; it’s inevitable that I’ll forget people. If we aren’t that close, I look forward to getting to know you better!

Ashmita, your posts are so fun to read and I love your blog design! // Maith, thank you for being one of my first followers! I hope you’re doing okay! // Riddhi, I really admire your involvement in the bookish community and love your unique posts! // Rukky and Dani, thank you for hosting Let’s Talk Bookish, I love participating in it! // Cherelle, your book reviews are always do detailed and eloquent and your blog aesthetic is amazing! // April, your posts are a joy to read, your humor never fails to put a smile on my face! // Birdie, your posts are so engaging and I admire your promotion of diverse reads! // Jan, I hope you’re hiatus is treating you well! // Saima, your blog design is incredible and I always look forward to reading your content! // Anoushka, I love the humor that you add to your posts, they’re filled with positive energy!

Rachel, the introductions to your posts never fail to make me laugh! // Aarushi, I love your blog redesign! // Chana and Malka, I love reading your posts, your discussions are especially interesting! // Sofi, I love how detailed your posts are and your support throughout the bookish community! // Maya, your blog is so cute, I love reading your posts! // Rania, I love your recommendations posts! // Ritz, you are such a kind blogger and you have really creative posts! // Liesl, your posts on autism are always so enlightening! // Isha, I love your Book Bloggers Nook project! // Emily, I learn a lot from your discussions and your tech posts are so cool! // Phoenix, your 2020 and 2021 book tags are so creative! // Rayna, your posts always make me smile and your humor is great! // Abby, your posts are so well written! We haven’t talked much but you’re really kind and I hope you’re doing alright! // Kaya, your blog was one of the first I found and helped inspire me to start mine!

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When’s your blogiversary? What are some things you’ve learned from blogging?
Once again, thank you for all of your support!