Reflecting on the Past Year

As we prepare to kiss 2018 goodbye, I’ve been thinking so much about how the past year really has been my year. I’ve been fortunate to experience a 2018 that was filled with way more positive than negative, which, after the emotional rollercoaster that 2017 was, was a great relief. Without dwelling too much on the past, 2017, while not a terrible year, wasn’t one of my favorites. I struggled coming to terms with graduating “late,” I had just ended a long term relationship, and at the very end I was in a car accident that totaled my first car and could have killed me. But this isn’t about 2017. This is about 2018, and while this year hasn’t all been sunshine and peaches, there isn’t too much I have to complain about in my personal life for the past year. Here are the highlights of my 2018:

• I graduated college! May 4th will always be a special day for me as it marks the day I became an alumna of the University of Georgia! I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Education in Special Education!

 

• I started my blog! Like I say on my homepage, I’ve been wanting to get back into reading, and having this blog was a great way to help me do that. It’s been nice to have somewhere to go to get my thoughts out on the books I’ve been reading! The Little Nerdmaid doesn’t have a huge following, but I’m so proud to say that my posts have reached just about every corner of the world! I’ve had readers from the UK, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, the Philippines, China, Japan, Pakistan, Germany, and Romania, and possibly a few more countries I’m forgetting! I can’t believe it! It’s so crazy to think that my posts have spread as far as they have; I never could have anticipated that kind of audience when I started this blog. I’m so thankful for everyone who has ever read, shared, liked, retweeted, or commented on my posts and helped it gain that audience that it has. I love being a #blogger now and I can’t wait to watch this little site grow!

 

• I made it to California! Ealier this year I got two tickets to be on The Ellen Show, which is filmed in Burbank. My mom is a huge fan of Ellen, so this was a gift to her. She was so excited! We hopped off the plane at LAX with our dreams and our cardigans and so began my first time in the city of angels. We visitied all kinds of museums and restaurants and even the Santa Monica beach, but the highlight of the trip was getting to see Ellen before our very eyes. It’s even more fun in person, and we got to sit in the very front row of the audience! It was my first time being that far out west and while I will admit I wasn’t as enamored with LA as I always imagined I’d be, I still had fun out there! And being on tv for .2 seconds was pretty cool, too! Here I am in the botton left corner of the screen dancing after Ellen made some poor guy take shots in an Elsa wig!

 

• I started grad school and moved to Louisiana! I’ve been wanting to move to Louisiana since I was about 17. In high school, I set my sights on Louisiana State University for undergrad, and even though I got accepted, the money just wasn’t there. Out-of-state tuition fees made LSU an unlikely choice in my final decision for college. Fast forward to 2018, though, and the finance gods smiled on me and made a way for me to be able to attend LSU for grad school. Now, I live in a tiny (and dingy, but overall acceptable) apartment in Baton Rouge and I’m absolutely loving it!

• I have a job I love! Coming into LSU, I took a job at a preschool, which ended up being the worst employment experience I’ve ever had. I won’t get into details about why the job sucked so much, but just know that it did. When I realized I was letting a part-time job stress me out way more than any part-time job needs to stress anyone out, I started looking for something else and the universe delivered. Now I’m a Bookseller at Barnes and Noble and while that isn’t the most exciting or impressive position, I’m so incredibly in love with it. My coworkers are awesome, the managers are wonderful, and I literally get paid to help people buy books! It’s a great job for me.

 

• Finally, I’ve met some awesome girls since I started grad school! Having family in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas helped make my move easier, but none of them are in school at LSU. Meeting the girls of my little group seriously helped me feel less alone on campus. Anyone who’s gone through college knows how intimidating it can be to feel like you’re going through it by yourself. I wasn’t very social in undergrad, but I was determined to change that for grad school. Now I have a group of girls I’d do anything for and I know would do anything for me.

    2018 was truly a wonderful year for me, and I really do hope it’s indicative of what the next few years will have in store for me. Even though this was not entirely a year of struggle for me, 2018 still molded me into a stronger, more outspoken and independent young woman. Looking back, I am so proud of all that I’ve accomplished this year and how much progress I’ve made growing into the woman I know I’m destined to be. Thank you, 2018, for a wonderful year! Here’s to hoping 2019 is just as great!