Looking back at 2019 // Life, Blog, Social Media

Although it had many ups and downs, 2019 was a good year for me.

It was one of the best years I’ve had, and by far the best year of college. Because it was such a memorable year, with tons of happenings, I want to record all the highlights so that I can look back later.

All I could think about during New Year’s Eve, when I was supposed to be studying for the next day’s exam, was 2019 memories. I roughly drafted this post on the morning of 1st Jan during breakfast even though I was supposed to leave for college in 10 minutes. That’s how much I want to record the last year.

Since I have a LOT to recap, I’ll try to keep each point short. Otherwise this post will never end lol.

LIFE

• Medical ups and downs.

My platelet count, which has been low since my first year of college, finally edged back into the normal range. But we suddenly found a swelling on my neck which kept growing. It persisted throughout the year, and caused so many problems.

• 7 months of gluten-free diet.

I went on a gluten-free diet from April through October, for medical reasons. It was really hard because it cut down most of what I can eat outside, and meant that I mostly only ate at home.

• First ER visit & hospitalization.

I was rushed to the hospital Emergency ward in the end of October due to breathlessness, caused by my swelling which suddenly kept increasing. And I stayed in the hospital, hooked up to IV and doing several tests, for three days. I absolutely hated that hospital stay, and hate that hospital now.

• My relationship with my dad fractured.

It was barely hanging in the first place. I don’t know if we’ll be able to recover from this, and I’m not sure I want us to.

• I cultivated my existing friendships over making new ones.

2018 was all about making new friends and getting out of my shell. But last year I spent a lot of time becoming closer to the friends I had, than reaching out to new people. It’s not to say that I didn’t make new friends, I did, but they’re fewer. My group is a tight-knit tribe now, because all of us spent a lot of time hanging out.

• I got a job!

I was very worried about this, and I’m super glad I managed to get a job. My internship there starts this month, and it’s very exciting to think about.

• Started choosing brighter colours.

I hated bright colours because they grab attention and I basically wanted to not be seen. Red & yellow were the worst. For many years my favourite colours were brown, dark purple, and then dark shades of blue. But last year, my favourite colour changed to pink. Not only that, but light pink! And I even began buying clothes which are yellow or red. It’s a huge change, which reflects my confidence.

• I was open to many new plans.

I met up with tons of new people, and even suggested meetups myself. The most notable are meets with my Bangalore bookstagram club and meeting up with people from my last internship.

• Made very many memories.

Especially the small ones. The most cherished times were everyday things from hanging out at our college’s canteen, to playing cards and other things.

BLOGGING

• Blogging fell to the wayside during multiple months.

I prioritized life things over blogging, and let my blog go without new posts for months together. The worst part was that I didn’t even read other blogs much during the time. By the end of that spell, I was disappointed in myself for doing that. While my priority choices were right, I could have put more effort into blogging.

• Very many personal posts.

When I started blogging, I did a lot of personal posts but as I immersed into the blogging world, I restricted most of my posts to the bookish zone. Inadvertently, I put myself into a niche even though I didn’t want that. 2019 changed that, because I had SO MANY THINGS to talk about and wanted to share my life with everyone.

• Hit 1.5k followers, 50k total views, and 700 total posts.

Achievements and milestones!!!

• Struggled to decide where I want to go with this blog.

Since I was being irregular, I was confining myself to keep it as just a hobby. But I also have the dream of making it a side hustle, which will take a lot of work. It’s very exciting to think of. But in 2019, I was very undecided throughout the year.

• My blog started coming up high in search engines!

In fact, the most number of views this blog currently receives is from search engines. Few of my posts have become really popular, I don’t know how, and garner so many views.

• Engagement from the WordPress community reduced.

I’m not able to pinpoint why, but the engagement from WordPress reader has considerably reduced from past years. That’s quite sad because they’re my original reader base, and the ones I used to interact a lot with.

• Blogmas!

I’m super glad that I did blogmas this time, and I managed to blog ALL 25 DAYS. That’s.. wow. Surprised myself, honestly. Click here to see my blogmas posts.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Tried new things on @thewordyhabitat.

I was only doing short themes, but in 2019 I tried outdoor photos, themeless feed and I did some experimenting with the posts. 2019 was also the year when I first put up my face on the account, which I had never done before.

• Struggled a lot with motivation.

Especially because of the engagement drop in Instagram. It was very discouraging and it made me want to give up on my bookstagram multiple times. I even did a whole post with my thoughts on Instagram.

• Struggled with my vision for @bujobeauties.

I considered monetizing it, but signing up on paypal gave me issues as it wasn’t accepting my ID. And somewhere during the beginning of 2019, I didn’t feel very inclined towards that account, and my activity went down. It took a backseat to @thewordyhabitat, and I wholly regret that.

• My twitter was just… I don’t know.

I started being more active there, and started using Hootsuite to schedule promo tweets for the blog. But otherwise, I’m just enjoying seeing my twitter feed over actually putting content there myself.

• Struggled to find my place in social media, overall.

My goals and my vision for my social media was completely unclear. I just kept doing something, but in my head, the end picture was not formed at all.

This year, I have some sense of direction because I figured out what I want to do, mostly. I have goals and action plans, and hopefully it will lead to the right end vision.

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How is your 2019 in review? Was it good, or was it disappointing?