So It Has Been A Year! | My One Year Blog Anniversary + (Why I Love It, Regrets, Advice etc.)

So - I guess it's now my turn to announce that it's my blogging anniversary. This post was supposed to be up since last Sunday but I wasn't feeling 100 and I didn't want to mess this particular post up! Around this time last year - I started this lil space. I've laughed, cried, been frustrated and lost with this blog. I created this from scratch, template and all which is mad because if you had told me I was going to start another blog from the beginning of 2016 - I would have just rolled my eyes and pretend I didn't hear you. BUT HERE WE ARE!
Let me just unravel the truth of the whys and whats behind the blog along with some facts.

Why I started the blog?

So summers are always a confusing one for me. I don't really have much to look forward to and the summer of 2016 was no different. I didn't want to be bored and lets say my summers don't consist of pool parties, red cups of alcohol, road trips, festivals, sleepovers or travelling the city - not under my parents roof. So I must have (this is gonna sound so sad but I'll keep it 100) been searching for things to do this summer because I full on wanted to be prepared and sorted. And I came across an article that listed various things to do. So after scrolling endlessly, the one thing that kept popping up was 'make a blog'.
However I dismissed the idea of doing one because I didn't see myself having one. The last blog I had was when I was like 10 and I had a good 4. So to get back into blogging would be weird because it's been so long. But no matter how many things I came across, the blogging idea stayed stuck inside my head - so with searching for teenage bloggers on google and just reading the 'About Me' section as knowledge for what having a blog would be like, I created one!

So the short simple answer was, I created my blog in the summer of 2016, from July-beginning of September so that I would not be bored!

Why I almost stopped blogging before I even started?

So although it's been a year, there's so much more to blogging than I've experienced yet. So why did I almost stop just before I got started? The short answer is commitment. Fear. And change.

That's what almost stopped me.

I wanted to create a blog so bad but I didn't want it to be like the blogs I had before (for insight, I had a collaborative blog where me and my former best-friend owned it, a nail blog and two MovieStarPlanet blogs- if you remember those days comment below LOL). Therefore I wanted to make sure my template was different to having the traditional blogger templates. Plus I wanted my blog to have logos and just be completely different from what I had before.
The fear in things going wrong which at times it did was the main reason why I had really bad anxiety. The overwhelming feeling of starting year 11 along with trying to start a completely different blog which I felt was a mile out of my comfort zone produced huge feelings of fear.

Like I never had those feelings before. From September to December, I had a really bad fear of blogging. The fear of it going wrong, the fear of potentially losing the blog, the fear of change because I would now need to commit to something (& whoever read my FIRST  blogpost will know that I find it challenging to commit to things). It was difficult for me and it was something that I overthought about a lot. I would make up scenarios of things that could go wrong. Seriously, if you have ever been through core-shaking, plain FEAR, then you know what I'm talking about.

That went on for four months but I got over it. I prayed about it, I calmed my butt down, I re-evaluated the situation and realised I needn't put myself through no stress. And since the new year, I've been taking it one day at a time.

What is my regret?

I don't really have any regrets when it comes to blogging. I just wish I had done the appropriate research beforehand. There's a lot of things that would have saved me a lot of time, frustration and anger if I had simply just researched it prior to doing it.

Why I love blogging?

Because it's mine. I have complete control of what I post, what I put out there. I have the access to take the blog in whatever direction as I see fit. As the years progress in my blogging journey, I have different plans for it at different stages. I see myself developing each 'sector' of my blog further in it's own individual way. I see myself slowly investing money and more time into it. I have goals for it. I have stated that this is something I would prefer as my main hobby as opposed to a career/profession.

My advice to any new bloggers:

Do it and get better. Do your research and understand what you're getting into. Blogging has many rewards - much I am yet to receive. But like all things like that, it comes with an investment of either hard work, time or money. But you can do it!
Don't compare yourself to other bloggers. I still do this myself but the more you invest into yourself and focus on your own lane - you will soon so how incredibly amazing you are and how much potential you have.
Don't let something fun be the stress of you like I did. Just remember it's a hobby, not a business...yet. Just learn to take it easy, one day at a time and take the breaks you need/deserve.
Engage with others! Only recently I've done this and I'm really glad I did: you feel less alone and understand that many are in your exact position.
DREAM BIG! Don't let anyone say you can't go places with a blog because there's so many out there! Not so many blogs out there are gonna bring what you have to offer. Be unique, be you and never think you can't achieve what the big bloggers are achieving.

Goals for this year:

-Improve my photo quality (it's all over the place at the moment).
-Develop each category of my blog further: nail art, drawings (watch out) beauty, genuine lifestyle posts etc.

So with that done thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who's supported me. The close friends, the friendly people who blog and have been with me at different stages. The likes, the re-tweets, the comments - IT IS APPRECIATED SO FRICKING MUCH!! Thanks for sticking with me guys! Cheers to another year, many more to come!

Simply, Jessy Tee