There’s Something About Year Five

There’s Something About KM turns five this month. This occasion comes at the start of a new decade, at the tail end of two employment changes (one voluntary and one not so voluntary), and during a pandemic. What a time.

Last year I wrote about where I was physically and mentally during previous blogiversaries: 2016 (There’s Something About KM’s domain debut), 2017, and 2018. At the start of April in 2019, I was filled with optimism, which unfortunately was short-lived because my web host took down my blog for nearly a month. Now that I look back on the rest of that year, and even the beginning of this one, it’s clear I never quite shook the fleeting, disorderly state I was thrown into that April – and I still have to refurbish many of my old posts (from which imagery and attachments were deleted during that downtime).

Fast forward to the past four/five months, which have been a whirlwind (mainly in the personal sense). I left a soulless job at the end of October for a new and exciting position at a company that laid me off in February. And then shortly after – as if I need to remind you – a pandemic swept across the globe and introduced me to another form of anxiety.

Expressing any type of complaint or feeling here on the internet is always risky, because of all the opinions and perspectives out there, so I’m going to leave my most intense and deepest for the pages of my journal. But what I will say is that despite all the terrible things running through my mind and trying to keep me down, I’m still feeling optimistic about the coming year – both inside and outside the blogisphere, although this post focuses on the latter.

Just yesterday (March 31st) I gained my 500th follower here on the blog. To reach that number on my fifth blogiversary is quite satisfying – and I have everyone who has ever clicked *follow* to thank. Knowing I have an audience in the hundreds gives me the extra push and motivation to do my best work in every post – and I’ve had a lot of fun doing so. Thank  you.

In the last year I’ve tried new things on the blog, and kept some things the same. I still love writing about books From My Bookshelf, and writing about and discussing fairy tales. I recently introduced a new series that combines my love for talking about books with baking, and brought back an old favorite series called Sunday Morning Thoughts. I’ve chatted about library books, tried decreasing the size of my TBR, and have had so many great conversations with my readers and other bloggers.

Even so, it would be dishonest to say that every week and and every month of the past year was a blogging breeze. For the first time since I started blogging, I had a few moments and periods of weeks at the end of 2019 in which I felt like giving up this hobby. I’ve personally had mentally lower months and years, but I just couldn’t find the passion that had upheld my blogging drive even in those lower times. The easiest answer to my lack of interest is that I was burnt out – I felt the least motivated to blog after starting my new job in the late fall, and after the permanent layoff and subsequent weeks leading up to now, I have felt that passion returning (over the past five days I’ve published five blog posts, if that is any indicator). I would prefer to be employed, but in this interim period of uncertainty (exacerbated by the pandemic), it is nice to feel grounded by a hobby I love, and one that pairs so well with another secure hobby: reading.

I talked about my 2020 Blogging Goals at the beginning of this year, and as of now they are still goals I would like to achieve. Although external circumstances are far different now than they were for me back in January, I’m mustering up every ounce of optimism for those goals and others – as well as keeping some optimism stored for the days I struggle to find any more.

So cheers to April, blogging milestones, and all of you who make me feel like I’m talking to and with friends, and not just into the void. 🎉

-Kelsey