2017 - 2018 - anniversary - giveaway

in a lot of ways, 2017 was the hardest year i've had. i pushed through the last semester of high school - but i graduated. i got my bilingual international baccalaureate (ib) diploma.  i was stressed out of my mind - but i'm starting to figure out how to all that. i had identity crises and existential crises just about every day - but i also learned more about who God is, and who i am. 

right now, i'm more "me" than i've ever been.

it was a year of extremes. the darkest moments and the best ones mashed up in a pocket of time, and emily was right. 

Lots of amazing stuff happened in 2018! 

One of the biggest things: I finished Blue, Black! I spent all of 2017 working on this novel and I finished it over Thanksgiving break. I'd never completed a draft of a novel on my own before this, so it was huge for me! 

I guess now is a good time to acknowledge that this post is definitely on the third day of 2018. Oh well that's fine don't worry about it xD i promise to be on time with everything else for the rest of the year hA TRICKED YA.

In the fall of 2017, I started college at the University of Iowa and i'm basically in love with it. So that's cool. ♡ I'm studying English and Creative Writing, Arts Entrepreneurship, and Philosophy YAY. I have some amazing friends already and I'm so, so thankful for them.

Gotta include those Spotify stats in there. Read: I listened to music like 24/7 this year. Sleeping at Last is LIFE.

By my wildly unreliable calculations, I wrote about 130,000 words this year, between Blue Black, blog posts, poetry, and random creative writing expeditions. That's not including journaling and school essay assignments. With those, it's probably closer to 200k.

It feels like forever ago, but I also went to the Minneapolis Young Writer's Workshop over the summer and saw the most amazing people: Aimee, Katie, Hannah, Kristana and Olivia and moreee. The conference isn't happening this year, but between the two times I've gone, it's literally changed my life.

Now is also a good time to mention that I started this post three times and couldn't figure out how to fit everything in a way that made sense so I'm still typing? It's just gonna come out and who cares? You'll get the idea, and I guess it kinda mirrors the crazy awesomeness of 2017 so yup. Go read my last post for more on this concept - which happens to be my most popular post of 2017. Most popular post ever, actually. xD

I must give another shoutout to all the Project Canvas people. I launched this project early in 2017, and there are so many awesome peopleeeee involveeeed!!!!  Some of you are probably reading this so hi I love you all, you guys are making this more amazing than I'd hoped. ♡ And for the rest, I can't wait for you to read this book! Release date is still very fuzzy, but it's scheduled for 2018. :)

Speaking of Project Canvas, we launched a blog to post writing inspiration on while we eagerly anticipate the book. And we're publishing guest posts. (Hint: the guest posts have been really awesome so far and we want more pls and thx). BUT ANYWAY we're currently having a GIVEAWAY for "Fangirl" and "Dancing on the Head of a Pen". It ends on the 5th of January at midnight. So go enter that speedily and come back to finish this post.

https://projectcanvasblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/new-years-giveaway-and-newsletter.html

While we're on the topic of giveaways, let's pretend that giveaway is for my 8th blogging anniversary!

That's right - I started this bloggo (does that work the same as doggo? can it be a thing now) when I was a wee little eleven-year-old, and I had the sense to do it at midnight on New Year's Eve. So January 1st is always our bloggy birthday, and it's been 8 years!

LITTLE-SELF. look! i was even wearing a little penguin shirt hehe. 

i was a very self-aware eleven-year-old.

So here we are.  I'm not sure what 2018 will look like, but I'm excited for it. I want it to be about love - loving myself, loving everyone around me. Letting that love seep out into the world and not being afraid to let my heart explode with caring about the world. 

I want to have more courage and find more peace. I'll keep writing and doin' my thing. 

I want to remember this: that life is gonna be a mess, but it's a beautiful one.