What I'm Thankful for This Year

If someone would had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be blogging, making videos, and meeting countless of amazing people along the way I would had thought he/she was absolutely crazy. The second half of 2012 was really tough for me. I had come back from studying abroad and reverse culture shock hit me so bad that I felt like a stranger in my own city and house. I felt severely disconnected from everyone and everything, even myself. All of that contributed to my life spiraling downwards until I fell back into depression. It was a horrible time filled with confusion, tears, and a couple of panic attacks here and there. Once 2013 started I promised myself that I needed to make changes, some of them weren't going to be easy but it was crucial for me to take some risks if I wanted to happy.


2013 started on a shaky note but once school started I wanted to make sure I made my last semester of college a memorable. I quit my job and decided to take that semester to just focus on school and myself. Not everyone was happy that I had quit my job but it was something that I felt like I needed to do for myself. This year I really wanted to make sure that I listened to myself. There's been too many times that I've put others before myself. There's been too many times I've sacrificed my happiness in order to make someone else happy while feeling like shit myself. Well that was not going to happen this year.

I started branching out and talking to people, acting silly, and sometime in February I decided that I wanted to start making a blog and put up YouTube videos again. I felt like it was the right time to start blogging and making YouTube videos again. Taking some time to do something that I enjoyed was very therapeutic to me and it allowed me to focus my energy into creating something positive. If I could inspire or help one person, then that's would make all the hours of editing and writing blog posts very worthwhile for me.

In May I finally graduated with my bachelors in French and Francophone Studies and a minor in European Studies. San Diego isn't the most Francophile friendly city so finding a job where I could use my French degree proved to be a real pain but then I thought to myself, "why don't I focus on trying to establish a solid blog?" Well that's exactly what I did. Right after graduation I cut my hair, got rid of anyone causing drama, and decided to start fresh. I started pushing myself to post on a regular basis, come up with new content, film more videos, and try to gain readers and subscribers the hard and slow way. Along the way some great opportunities popped up such as attending Fashion Week San Diego and the Latina Bloggers Connect campaigns. I also started to meet some amazing people along the way, people that I could relate to even if we come from very different cultural backgrounds.

I've always been one who struggles with socializing and making friends. It's never been easy for me to open up to people but I've been learning that socializing can be good, even for an introvert like me. It may not be easy and I still get anxious before every event and concert I go to, but pushing myself to be more social has lead me to meet some great people. 2013 has truly become a year that taking risks has really paid off.

I'm very thankful for all the people who have stuck around with me throughout the years. I'm thankful for those who I had the great pleasure meeting this year. I'm thankful for my boyfriend who has been nothing but supportive throughout the years we've been together. I'm thankful for my family even though they still don't really understand blogging too much. I'm thankful for the people I've met at concerts and share the same love for music as I do. I'm thankful for every musician that created music that was able to touch my heart and inspire me. I'm thankful for blogging and YouTube because  of all the opportunities I've had this year and also for making me realize that I have a voice. I'm thankful for everyone who reads my blog, watches my video, clicks like on a Facebook post, and comments on an Instagram picture- it's because of you that I keep putting every once of effort into creating good content. And most importantly I'm thankful for that ounce of strength I had even when I felt like just giving up. Thanks to that little bit of strength I was able to push myself and accomplish things that I would had never thought I could. And this is only the beginning.

It was a little hard to write this since it's never fun to revisit painful moments of your life but I hope you enjoyed the blog post. Let me know what you're thankful for in the comments below and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!