Time for mini challenge #4! I skipped 2 & 3 because I am terrible at poetry and playlists, to be honest. ^_~

This mini challenge is the one in which we write letters to our blogging selves! Mine is a combo walk down blog memory lane, and things I want myself to keep in mind.

love-a-thon

Dear Blogging Self Circa 2010,

Hi. Right now you’re blogging as an outlet for any random thoughts that you have in your head. You’ve just graduated college, you’re working in a restaurant, and you’re not making time for reading nor writing.

Then you get an office job and you start making time for reading. You remember why books were your companions during math class in high school. How reading that one book after a heartbreak made you think maybe things would be okay again. And it seems natural to start sharing all of these thoughts on your blog.

And before you know it, you’re not a personal blogger any more. You’re book blogger.

Thank goodness your blog title fits YA Lit as well as the phase of life you’re in.

You get on Twitter and find yourself reconnecting with old friends who used to be in the Sailor Moon Usako_Mamoru livejournal community. You all read a lot of the same books now and flailing over the books is just as much fun as talking about The Miracle Romance.

You’re going to go through a phase where you get REALLY hung up on things like followers and hits. And those things are nice. But dwelling on them and comparing your stats to others sucks the enjoyment from you.

You learn that it’s okay not to like some of those series that seemingly everyone else likes. You find a voice in the year after you move home and spend it unemployed, but happy. You don’t have to request EVERYTHING that is made available to you. The sheer number of things to read is only going to stress you out.

Stick with it. You’re going to make some really awesome friends and spend an amazing week in New York City with them at Book Expo America. And consistent blogging? It gets you an internship. And those improvements to your resume?

It finally gets you a job.

Stop beating yourself up about those times when you’re in a blogging funk. It’s okay to set that book aside and to let the blog BREATHE for a few days.

Maybe you’ll never be a “big” blogger, but you gradually come to accept that. You enjoy your time reading. You love keyboard smashing happy reviews.

And you love the community.

(Hence today and your participation in the Love-A-Thon).

And really, that’s all there is to it.