It’s crazy to think that we’re already in June and I can’t remember the last time I wrote a blog post! It was probably at the beginning of the year or the end of last year, I can’t remember exactly. But so far this year has really gotten away from me! So here are some of the reasons for that-

1- My parents and I moved into a new apartment during March. I won’t go into all the details about the hows and why we had to move. All I will say is it was the most heartbreaking and stressful move we ever had and this move stemmed from a situation that was not within our control. Always research your landlords people! That’s all I will say about that.

2- While dealing with this stressful move, I went back to school for the Spring semester! Unfortunately I could only complete one class, but I aced it and now I’m currently taking Summer 1 classes- Philosophy and Spanish 1. Philosophy is stressful in the sense that we don’t have a syllabus and I like having a syllabus. I like the structure and planning and guidelines that go with having a syllabus, so to not have one really throws me off! And Spanish…. I can’t go there. All I will say is I already have a tutor and I’m hoping to do well enough to pass it, get my credit, and then go onto Spanish 2 in the Fall. This will not be a fun semester for me, but I know I need these two credits to graduate, and once these classes are done, only two more to go until my degree! I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about FINALLY getting that piece of paper.

3- I lost my job at Payless in March, so I am currently unemployed. I know unemployment is supposed to be scary and stressful, but it’s actually been pretty good for me so far. It’s allowed me to go to concerts with friends, actually hang out with friends who I haven’t seen in years, and most importantly- It’s allowed me time to write! Obviously I haven’t used any of that time to work on this blog- my bad- but it allowed me to realize that the novel I was working on wasn’t going anywhere because I didn’t really know my characters. By putting that novel on hold, I’ve now started a new one that I am feeling a lot more confident about. The goal- Have the first draft finished by the end of 2017 and maybe look into self-publishing it by the end of 2018. But we’ll see because life and time have a tendency to fly by without us realizing it.

4- I’m back in therapy. For anyone who doesn’t know it, I was in therapy years ago and it didn’t help. My therapist was a quack who told me the only way I could get better was by taking medication. I firmly believe that I can overcome the issues that plaque me if I just work hard on them. So now I have a new therapist and I’m waiting to speak to a psychiatrist to see what exactly I’ll be diagnosed with and what they think is the best course of action. I’m thinking about writing a blog post about my personal struggles with mental health, but only if people want to read it!

So that’s been my 2017 so far- one heck of a rollercoaster! But things- for the most part- feel a lot better and calmer now. With it being Summer, I’m sure there will be plenty for me to write about! But I’m going to slowly ease myself back into this and to anyone who is still around, thank you! I’m working very hard on creating a better schedule for myself and trying to come up with fresh ideas for this blog. I don’t just want to write about books and reading and writing because while they are very important to me, I know there is more to life than just those three things. We all have other things going on and if one thing I write can help someone through a tough time then it’s worth it to keep writing about those other things.

So here’s to the rest of 2017!