OUR SECOND BLOGVERSARY!

Hi😊!

How are you doing this fine day? I'm hoping you're doing good and that God continues to be with you and guide you.  

IT'S OUR SECOND BLOGVERSARY!!

This is such a huge deal for me. In the days leading up to today, I kept thinking of everything that led up to 16th November, 2021 –the day I made my first blog post. If you were already a gist partner at our first blogversary, I spoke about how I'd been wanting to start the blog for years and didn't ever muster the courage to do so. I'd spoken about it time and again with my best friend, in fact it had even began to sound like one of those "talk, no do" situations. 

When I woke up the morning I started this blog, I honestly did not know that I would have started a blog by the end of that day, it just so happened that while I was doing some research for the firm I was interning with at the time, I decided, on impulse, to open the blog. It was such a random act that I honestly didn't think would have the kind of impact in my life that it's had yet here we are, 94 posts later!

When I started the blog, I struggled a lot with finding my niche; I'd always been a fiction writer, weaving stories and plots in my head, and I honestly thought that was what I'd be doing with the blog. In fact a friend of mine even suggested as much indirectly and I'd begun to set the plans in motion to tell those stories. Then I realized that that wasn't what I wanted to do with the blog, I began to feel led to doing something I had never thought I'd do –sharing my experiences and lessons. 

I balked at first. I'm normally such a 'tell nobody' person and I felt that the blog was going to be intrusive and I was going to have to expose myself to people. Even when I started writing, I imagined that I was going to one day transition into writing fiction on the blog but for some reason, I kept on never making the transition until one day I realized that "Omo I love this thing I'm doing with the blog oo", I lost my desire to transition into fiction on the blog. 

This blog had become my personal diary, a place where I can unashamedly talk about whatever it is that's going on with me and I'm grateful for this space. Sometimes I'm preparing a post for the blog and I literally have God opening my eyes to certain things in my life and teaching me various lessons that I know I would otherwise not have learned.

I look back at the past two years and I see the growth I've experienced and how God has honed my writing ability little-by-little, post-after-post, and I'm grateful for the privilege of this platform. I remember how uncomfortable the name 'blogger' made me the first time my friend Daniel called me that, to me I was just a girl who ran a blog. But as I thought about it recently, I realized that that's really who I am and I must learn to own it so please feel free to call me blogger, I've learned to accept it.

I'm also grateful to you my gist partners for always coming back, for reading the posts time and again, you're the ginger I need on the days when I don't feel like continuing. 

I'm grateful for my backbone and support team, these people who have been everything from editors, to title givers, to 'think tanks' and idea curators… this blog would have ended a long time ago if I didn't have you guys, I love you so much. 

I'm also grateful to the guests that have featured on the blog so far (we're resuming again so no worry), thank you for letting us learn from you.

I'm excited for all that this next year is going to bring for all of us on the blog, I'm anticipating all the good things that'll come to us  through and in this blog, so watch this space guys.  

Congratulations to me, congratulations to you who stayed with me! It'll only get better for us here! Thank you for staying with me.

Love,

Achenyo.

PS. The gratitude challenge is still on, please join us –three things you're grateful for each day, that's all.