I’m Back!! | Life Update/2023 Wrap-Up

Hey, everyone!! I am back! I know it’s been an extremely long time; I didn’t mean to disappear for ten months but life got busy, and blogging took a seat on the back burner.

I was having a bit of blogging burnout in March. I stopped to focus on school, but then I was booked up for nearly the whole summer, then senior year started, which doesn’t really need an explanation, and now we’re here.

So, a little life update. Here’s a quick rundown of the major things that have happened since last March and how my life is going now:

Last school year:
✈️ I went to Chicago for a school music trip in April, and we won gold. I had a fantastic time and am planning on going to this year’s Disneyland trip.
🎤 I competed in my school’s annual poetry slam. It was originally an assignment for English class, and I was eligible to compete. I joined the official Slam Team this year and have been working on poems for competition.
📚 I went to a book festival and met Marie Lu, Angeline Boulley, Nick Brooks, Traci Chee, Mike Chen, Ellen Oh, and Randy Ribay. I got to get my books signed!
☀️ My summer was packed. I went on college tours, spent a week as an LIT for a summer camp, and went to summer camp myself.

This school year:
🏳️‍ I joined my school’s color guard and had an incredible season. I’m sad that I joined my last year of high school, but I’m so glad I did at least one season. I made a bunch of new friends and even got a boyfriend.
📰 I became editor-in-chief of my school’s newspaper this year. My school’s paper is an all volunteer club, since there’s no official class. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m working hard to make sure the paper can continue strong after I leave.
🧶 I got into crocheting again and ended up making some things for Christmas gifts. I’m having a lot of fun with the craft.
🏫 I’ll be starting my second semester of senior year soon, which is both exciting and terrifying. I’m so ready to leave high school because mine is kind of turning into a disaster, but I’m also sad that I’ll be leaving so many friends behind.

While I was on hiatus, my blog turned three years old! I can’t believe I started Pages of Starlight that long ago. Thank you so much to everyone who’s interacted with my blog. My life is a bit less hectic now, so I’m hoping I can start posting regularly again.

Let’s do a reading update/wrap-up for 2023. I’m not going to do my normal in-depth wrap-up because I don’t feel like doing it. I’ll still talk about the major parts, and we’ll have a few graphs.

I didn’t read as much as I had hoped to last year. Life kept me occupied, and especially during band season, I had zero free time; I was also balancing two AP classes and dealing with college apps. I’m still amazed at the fact that I was able to finish the semester with straight As.

I read 39 books last year. I’m not disappointed with this number, though my reading goal was 60 books. One thing I’m going to do differently this year is not set a reading goal. I noticed that last year, I was beginning to focus more on the numbers. I don’t want reading to become something I have to do to achieve a goal; it’s a hobby, and I want to keep it as one.

I read from 8 different genres, with the top three being fantasy and a tie between contemporary and–this is very surprising–romance. I did not expect that to happen. I also read a horror book, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, for a book club.

Average rating: 3.94 (-0.22 from 2022)

My ratings suffered a bit. There were a lot of books I enjoyed last year, but only a few truly stood out to me. There were a lot more books that I read that I thought were just okay. I’m hoping I’ll have a better bunch this year.

My top three favorite books from 2023 were Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Of Starlight and Bone by Emily Layne, and the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. I’m planning on doing a “my favorite reads of 2023” post so I’ll talk more about these books there.

WordPress is not letting me make a gallery; it always gives me an error every time I try to put one in. Is anyone else having this problem?

2023 Goals Review

Reading:

• Read 60 books ❌️
• Participate in 3 reading challenges ❌️ I technically participated in them, but I didn’t complete any of them. The challenge I was closest to completing was the 12 Reading Challenge, and I only finished half of it.

Blogging:

• Reach 250 followers ❌️ I’m not surprised.
• Review at least 30% of books read ❌️ Obviously.

Writing:

• Complete the fourth draft of OMaM and get opinions on it ❌ I wish. I still haven’t finished the last chapter. I didn’t have much time to write anything; everything I wrote was for school.
• Journal a few times a week ❌ I did for a little bit, but I never had a set time to do it. I would always wait until before bed but by then, I just wanted to read.

Personal:

• Learn to cook some meals ✅️ Kind of. I did some cooking earlier in the year.
• Deepen my friendships ✅️ Yes, definitely! Joining color guard was a blessing to my social life.

2/8 goals completed. Kind of terrible, but at least I accomplished some of them.

---

2024 Goals

I think I’m only going to set one goal per category this year. 2024 is going to be a big year for me, so I don’t want to overload myself.

📚 Read 15 books outside my usual genres (fantasy, contemporary, and historical fiction).
💻 Post at least once a week and/or keep a consistent schedule of some sort.
📝 Work on OMaM and get outside opinions.
🌱 Complete my 2024 temperature blanket (I am being very ambitious in the crocheting department)

Let’s hope I can accomplish these, especially the writing goal–I really want to complete it.

In all honesty, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to blog. I don’t have as much on my plate this semester, but I’ll still be busy and have extracurriculars to focus on. I’m going to try to post at least once a week; I think the day might be Monday, but I’m not 100% sure yet.

---

How are y’all doing? How was your 2023?
Did you have a good holiday?