2011 Wrap-Up

I think I've spent the last ten minutes or so staring at the blinking cursor on a blindingly white word document contemplating everything that has gone on this year. For me 2011 was the year of the BIG changes. I transferred to an actual university, moved into the dorms, started Typing Tiara and have been sick more than any previous year.

As of the day I'm writing this Typing Tiara is seven months old. SEVEN MONTHS. I never thought that I would make it this far. I started Typing Tiara on a whim, actually it was more of a rebirth on a whim since I had given blogging a shot before and failed miserably. I couldn't stick to a schedule, I didn't know what to say, and my blog was all over the place. So I quit. What made me come back? The community, the gigantic and wonderful blogging community. Sure I hadn't been a part of it previously but I wanted to be. I had started reading a lot of different blogs and slowly but surely began to find my way, I found a focus and I found a group of people that I wanted to be a part of. I felt I belonged. And so Typing Tiara was reborn, not as the personal and random blog it began as, but as a young adult book blog.

It wasn't easy. It still isn't easy. I struggle every day coming up with ideas for posts, you might have noticed that more often than not I post a meme on Tuesdays these days instead of my own Tiara Talk, attempting to work with html, and writing reviews. But that's just the blog itself, that's not even considering the social aspect of it. Sure it would be easy to just send posts out into the interwebs, but that's not what I want to do. I want my voice to be heard. I want fellow readers/bloggers to read my posts, I want the interaction. So I tweet. I try to get Typing Tiara out there, and even harder I try to get myself out there. I'm a shy person by nature. The blogging community is a tight-knit group, everyone seems to either know each other or know of each other. I'm new to the game, I'm the unknown. And did I mention I'm shy?

I'm proud of Typing Tiara, where it is now and how far that I've come with it. Seven months isn't too shabby. Neither is having one hundred thirty-seven followers. I never even really expected to get one. People are reading so I'm going to keep posting. But I don't want to stay where I am. I want to get better. I don't want to just run in place, I want to conquer the next mountain, move to the next challenge. That's why I'm setting a couple New Years' resolutions for my blog.

(1) No more being scared, no more letting my shyness hinder me. I want to get out there. I want to make more awesome blogging buddies. I want to be able to request ARCs, as another blogger once told me the worst thing they can do is say no and that really isn't that bad.

(2) I want to conquer HTML. Okay. Maybe not conquer. But I want to learn enough to make my blog pretty. First impressions count for a lot and as of right now by looks alone Typing Tiara doesn't pack much of a punch. I want to fix that.

I also wanted to send out a few shout-outs to the bloggers that have helped me to make it this far: Alli of Magnet 4 Books Reviews, Shana of A Book Vacation, Ishita of The Reading Fish, Megan of Book Brats Reviews, Michelle of Book Briefs, Sonia of The Story Queen, Caitlin of The Cait Files and so many more. I wouldn't have made it this far without your guys' help. Thank you guys!

So here's to the end of 2011 and the promise of making 2012 an even better year for Typing Tiara!