Happy First Blogoversary to me, to me, to me! On August 27th, 2014, I wrote my first blog post called “Who I Am,” and I decided to keep blogging until August 27th 2015. My little blog became my baby, and I have been sticking with her for a year now! Yasss!

When I began this blog, I was in transition. I was preparing for my first year of graduate school, and I had many feelings that I was grappling with. I was excited about starting school again, as I had waited five years to make my return. But I was also nervous, because it was graduate school. Graduate school felt like this big monster that I was not sure I could overcome.

A year later, I am in transition again. I am transitioning out of a job, where I have loved supporting teenage parents and their babies, and I am going to start my second year of graduate school in September. Now, before y’all do your happy dances, I am in a three year program. I am not near graduation yet, but I am slowly moving through this program. With God’s help and support from family and friends, I overcame my first year of graduate school. My vlog post #ISurvivedMyFirstYear talks about the obstacles and triumphs of my first year of school. Check it out if you have not watched it yet.

Blogging has given me the opportunity to share my thoughts with y’all! My tagline is “Love God, Embrace Love, and Be Afrotastic.” Throughout my blog and vlog posts, I have not pretended to be a perfect human being. We all know that no one is perfect, but God. But I strive to love God, others, and myself daily! In my blog post “Embrace LOVE/Listen to Andy Mineo” I said “I feel that LOVE (authentic LOVE) is costly!”

Authentic love ain’t no cakewalk y’all.

In each blog post, I hope that you have seen the struggle of living a life of love and living on this Earth. In my “About Me” page, I call love “a worthy sacrifice.” And no, I do not always want to make the sacrifice, but I have to push myself to do so. When I speak about struggle, I speak about the decision to love when hatred surrounds me, and when unforgiveness tries to beat my soul up. There is also the struggle of dealing with a grief stricken heart, but still choosing to love God and others.

With this blog, I have felt the struggle of wanting to hide my posts in a corner and only wanting a few folks to see it. It is the fear of being found out, and of being celebrated! I am not always good at being in the limelight, but I  am grateful for my first readers who read my blog and made comments. Y’all encouraged me to continue writing and putting my thoughts out in the blogosphere.

I am thankful to my family members, especially my aunts and cousins on both sides of the family. In the beginning, I contacted some of you and told you to read my blog. And you read it!  Many of you have told me that I am a great writer, and I appreciate that you believe in the gift that God has given me.

I am thankful to my friends (S, TJ, JI, JH, J, A, etc.) for reading my blog and encouraging me to be in control of it. Sometimes, I wanted to write about certain topics very honestly, but I was afraid to even do it! Y’all told me that “It was my blog, and I could write what I wanted to write.” Thank you for helping me to be courageous. And thank you for convincing me to actually promote my blog. If I had it my way, I would still be in hiding 🙂

My blog has a small following, but I am excited about each person who reads it. It is quite fabulous to me when a person interrupts the tasks on his/her check list to read my reflections on faith, natural hair, singleness, or grief. Y’all do not have to read, but you choose to do so. Y’all make this afrotasticlady’s heart do somersaults.

Again, thanks y’all! And please stay on this journey with me as I work towards loving God, embracing love, and being afrotastic!

Blessings y’all,

afrotasticlady

My cartoon self. This picture was made by one of my Sunday School students.