What You Can Do With A Year

A year ago today I started a new hobby and it has slowly grown into the blog that you're reading today. My early posts were incredibly amateur (and to some extent I find them a little bit cringe worthy to re-read) but then so too I think are the posts I'm writing today! On this internet platform that I'm occupying today I am quite the newbie. Honestly, I don't know what I thought the internet was, or what was truly "going on" online, until I finally cracked into it this last year. Even now I'm discovering new things every single day. And it is so freaking exciting. I wake up every day and I am excited. People everywhere are creating content that I, despite anxiously spending a lot of my time alone and at home, can access and enjoy. 

This excitement and new found knowledge is not limited to beauty blogging whatsoever, my interests are wide and they are various. However, I do think that One Little Vice has benefited from these other interests of mine and slowly it is growing into something that I'm not only proud of but that is helping me experience the benefits of this new age of internet activity. I've spent the last year talking to a whole host of different people that I would never have talked to without having started a blog, and its kind of been a bit of a social explosion for me. I like people, I love socialising but I can also sometimes be cripplingly shy - and this is not a product of my "nature", it's the result of years of low self-esteem that have in the past put me off being a social person. I'm not saying that these issues are fixed, or that they every will be but I've become so much more aware of the kindness, and also the fragility, of strangers. Coming to realise that people everywhere are similar and witnessing other people's anxiety and nervousness (through their blogs and videos) has helped me considerably.

At my first ever blogging event last December!

The internet has also clued me into a whole host of alternate job prospects that in my graduate state of delirium is actually very soothing. There is no cookie cutter profession that I am destined for, there are only ever choices and chance. Choosing to start blogging has, by chance, allowed me to discover new possibilities and people whose writing inspires me and in turn has reminded me of the passion that I've always had for writing. I have also only truly just discovered the joys of YouTube, and I have only just begun glimpsing the infinite possibilities of this forum for creative, intelligent content production. 

I feel as though as a content producing human I'm only just getting started, and to those of you who have accompanied me thus far, thank you. Thank you ever so much for your support, your time, your words and more importantly, for your kindness. I have had so many supportive words said to me this year, many of which were from people I've never met and people I will not ever meet. All of your kindness does not go unnoticed, it is not unappreciated and it will help you reap your own rewards because your kind natures will attract happiness in turn. I hope that any of what I've said, either here on my blog or elsewhere, has helped even just one of you have a better day or feel better about yourselves. More importantly though, I'm going to endeavour to make next year an even better year and to try and continue pushing my limits, learning and, hopefully, achieving successes, however I might measure them.

In conclusion, certainly my blog's first birthday is something which I am going to celebrate, but I also want to use today to thank and celebrate some of the other people, the other blogs and the other content that has brought entertainment and joy into my daily life. So, to all of you, and believe me you are many, thank you.