{"id":1326,"date":"2017-04-19T05:30:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T16:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2017-03-05T05:32:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T16:32:26","slug":"the-first-of-many-a-blogversary-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/?p=1326","title":{"rendered":"the first of many; a BLOGVERSARY post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1337 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/first-blogversary.jpg\" alt=\"first blogversary\" width=\"500\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/first-blogversary.jpg 500w, https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/first-blogversary-300x147.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s my blogversary!<\/p>\n<p>Well, technically, it&#8217;s my blogversary <em>month<\/em>, not day. But because it&#8217;s easier on me, I am sticking to my schedule. One post every third Wednesday of the month. Just like I promised myself.<\/p>\n<p>I started book blogging about four years ago, over on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foldedbetweenthepagesofbooks.tumblr.com\/\">Tumblr<\/a>, and while I loved it, a part of me felt like all I was doing was posting reviews. There was not much interaction or discussion. I didn&#8217;t feel like I was <em>challenging<\/em> myself.<\/p>\n<p>And I wanted a place not just to talk books, but also a place where I could talk a little bit more openly about my views on writing and the community I had found. Hence this blog was born.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had some ups and downs &#8211; moments of doubt and personal upheaval that had me wondering if running this blog was a good idea. And while things in my personal life are going to change majorly once again, it is a good change, and one that I think will help me learn how to balance things better, both in real life and online.<\/p>\n<p>I may not have the most followers, or the most interesting discussions, or even comments on every post I make, but what I do have is a desire to have my voice heard. A place to let out my thoughts, and a place where, I hope, people feel they can be honest in their thoughts as well. I won&#8217;t be judging anyone on their personal views. After all, I&#8217;m here to start a conversation, not an argument.<\/p>\n<p>This would generally be the place where people post their stats, but honestly, mine are not all that impressive, so I&#8217;m just going to skip this part. I <em>am<\/em> going to say that I have written some pieces that I am quite proud of, and made some friends that I hope to keep for as long as I am able.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back on the past year, things on this blog have not been organised so well. Not at first, and then when I disappeared for a bit, not at all. But this year will be different. It is a resolution I am going to try to stick to, because I have truly enjoyed having this blog. A place to pour out my thoughts on reading and writing and the communities I have become a part of, however small.<\/p>\n<p>So thank you to those of you who have been accompanying me on this journey. I hope you stick with me as I go on.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1143\" src=\"http:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/signoff-300x148.jpg\" alt=\"2016-04-12 11:46\" width=\"300\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/signoff-300x148.jpg 300w, https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/signoff-768x379.jpg 768w, https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/signoff-1024x505.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/signoff-1200x592.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s my blogversary! Well, technically, it&#8217;s my blogversary month, not day. But because it&#8217;s easier on me, I am sticking to my schedule. One post every third Wednesday of the month. Just like I promised myself. I started book blogging about four years ago, over on Tumblr, and while I loved it, a part of me felt like all I was doing was posting reviews. There was not much interaction or discussion. I didn&#8217;t feel like I was challenging myself. And I wanted a place not just to talk books, but also a place where I could talk a little bit more openly about my views on writing and the community I had found. Hence this blog was born. I&#8217;ve had some ups and downs &#8211; moments of doubt and personal upheaval that had me wondering if running this blog was a good idea. And while things in my personal life are going to change majorly once again, it is a good change, and one that I think will help me learn how to balance things better, both in real life and online. I may not have the most followers, or the most interesting discussions, or even comments on every post I make, but what I do have is a desire to have my voice heard. A place to let out my thoughts, and a place where, I hope, people feel they can be honest in their thoughts as well. I won&#8217;t be judging anyone on their personal views. After all, I&#8217;m here to start a conversation, not an argument. This would generally be the place where people post their stats, but honestly, mine are not all that impressive, so I&#8217;m just going to skip this part. I am going to say that I have written some pieces that I am quite proud of, and made some friends that I hope to keep for as long as I am able. Looking back on the past year, things on this blog have not been organised so well. Not at first, and then when I disappeared for a bit, not at all. But this year will be different. It is a resolution I am going to try to stick to, because I have truly enjoyed having this blog. A place to pour out my thoughts on reading and writing and the communities I have become a part of, however small. So thank you to those of you who have been accompanying me on this journey. I hope you stick with me as I go on. &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[168,169,59],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogversary","tag-a-blogversary-post","tag-the-first-of-many","tag-writings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1353,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}