Four Years of Blogging

September 1st marked four years since I started my blog! Wowza. I wanted to do this annual post to give an update on my journey, my relationship with blogging and to say thank you to those who continue to follow along and support me along the way.

Four years and 565 posts later… here we are. How did we get here? 

For those who’ve been here since the beginning, you’ve seen (and read about) me study my way through college, get engaged, graduate from college, move into my first apartment, plan my wedding and marry my now husband, start my freelance business, change jobs, hunt for and buy our first house, get our sweet little doggy and more. From just shy of 22 to nearly 26 years old, so much has changed and evolved in my life since September 2015 and I feel like you’ve really seen me grow into the person I am today. I’ve lost friends, gained new ones, changed directions in life, and failed and succeeded in many ways. I’ve done my best to share all of those experiences with you to not only remember the good times, but also to document struggles that could help others.

I haven’t shied away from sharing why I started my blog in the first place. Back in 2015, I felt stuck in a job that had me feeling less than. I honestly should have left way earlier than I did. Feeling stuck often drives you to try new things, and those emotions gave me the little push I needed to do something for me on my own terms. Blogging was the perfect match for me. It was my therapy during those long days, and it’s become a place I turn to on the good ones, too. Four years later, it still plays an equally important role in my life.

Some of my favorite blogging memories and milestones so far include:

• Working with TJ Maxx
• Booking two travel collaborations with The Kirby Hotel in Michigan and Visit Butler County in Ohio
• Surpassing 1,000 Instagram followers, then 2,000 too

You’ve seen all of the life events that led to where I am today, and I hope you’ll see me have children and become a mother, travel and further pursue the things I’m passionate about. I hope this website is a hub I can look back on when I’m older, and even serve as a timeline for my kids to look back on and get to know their mother in a whole new way.

Honorable mentions, if you will:

• I want to thank my husband for his constant support in more ways than I can count. We were dating when I started my blog, soon getting engaged just three months later. He’s been there for me every step of the way, taking photos of me in the middle of the street, listening to me bounce ideas off of him and ranting about all the blogger scammers out there. I’m so appreciative of him and his sincere encouragement. He’s been a leading role in my life here on my blog, so in a way, it’s a part of him too.
• I want to give a big shoutout to my family too for coming with me to blogging events on occasion and understanding time commitments with my blog. I’ve had to turn things down every now and then due to blogging deadlines, and it’s great to have people in my life that understand that this is both a job and a hobby for me that requires attention and dedication. It’s a choice I made, and for the people I love to respect and encourage that means so much to me.
• And to all of you: thank you for being here. Really, each minute you spend on my blog is a minute away from anything else you could be doing, and the fact that my blog potentially plays a weekly role in your life means so much to me. I hope you feel at home here as much as I do, as well as understood, comforted and inspired. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

 Happy Birthday, abbysaylor.com!