Happy 1st Birthday, BeautyintheCrazy!

Welcome (back) to my blog dear reader! I am so glad you are here. 😄 I hope you enjoy your time here.

Pardon me while I super emotional for a second. My blog is a year old! I honestly am so thankful and blessed because of it. No matter how many of my posts you may have read, I am so grateful for you dear reader. 💙 I wanted to take some time today to reflect and look back on the highs and lows of this little blog of mine. And I added links for all the posts I mentioned if you want to check them out.

One of the first posts I ever published was on the words I chose for 2019. It was called Relishing in my Curiosity. I think I did pretty well, incorporating curiosity into my year. I learned a lot about myself last year. In ways, I didn't even expect. I was reminded of my endurance by working a job all summer. And I enjoyed it. There were challenges to it like any job. But I was able to find things within it that made it more than worthwhile. As far as relishing my year, I did have a good year for the most part. There were moments that broke me down but they were overwhelmingly dwarfed by the number of moments that built me up.

I also chose a saint for 2019 and I am so glad that I did. Blessed Angela of Foligno was a great intercessor for me this past year. I spent a long time talking with her throughout the day. A post I wrote back in the summer and published in the fall gave some details of my struggle with purity. And like I said in the post about Blessed Angela, she is a helpful friend to have whether there is an addiction involved or not. Highly recommend chatting with her.

Out of all the posts that I published I have some favorites. Somehow I managed to choose 3 that I liked the most. The third was a post from the spring called Rock Wall To Heaven: Detailing my first time rock climbing and how I managed to connect a theological thought to my experience. My second favorite was a post about femininity and how I approach it called Tomboy Troubles. I really enjoyed this one because it approached the topic of what it means to be a woman and how none of the stereotypes that the media portrays really matter. And finally, even though it was not the most cheerful of topics, I think the post that I am glad to have published last year was Being Quiet Adds to the Problem. Like the post about Blessed Angela, talking about a part of my life which I struggle to control really helped me overcome some of my doubts and confidence issues.

Being a new blogger, like taking on any challenge or activity, had a learning curve. There were a few things I was not totally expecting but I am glad I learned. First of all, I had to figure out how to make a schedule. When I first started I posted on Tuesdays. Then I moved it to Wednesday. Then eventually I started posting every other week on the day that was the least busy. A hard lesson to be okay with, but a necessary one. It was a challenge at first trying to pick topics. I am an extroverted nerd who loves Jesus. The things I find interesting might be super boring to others. It is a delicate balance. I also want to get better at incorporating audience engagement. Maybe I will do more question and answer things this year.

But most of all, I learned that I still love writing. And no matter what happens with this blog, I do not think that love will change. And finding a creative outlet that I love is the reason I started this blog in the first place. It is my Beauty in the Crazy, in this thing I call my life. ☀️💙