Welcome to October, another month in recovery from being “locked up” (quoting Oprah’s magazine Fall 2021) for a year during COVID, and Im sure that everyone is too exhausted to talk about how that year went, youre here now, your thriving, your taking good care of your health, and you survived probably one of the most traumatic years in US history, in my mind, it was non-stop, Im not sure if that was the same for everyone else. When the trauma doesn’t stop, whether youre a primary victim or secondary, you cant always control what conversations are brought up in the aftermath, and its okay to feel stressed out, hearing about how things are going from the perspective of someone else, who is specifically studying and talking about the effects that this past year has had on us, how we look at life, the time we spend with others, and the timer we spend alone. So how did you spend this past year, besides better getting to know yourself, how did you occupy your time during those torid moments of being stuck at home, how did you keep busy, and what did you do to lift your mood, and avoid being sedentary? -When I got the news sometime last Spring, the mask mandate, I actually didn’t know where to buy masks in the beginning and invested in Gap, Old Navy, and Tori Burch masks, it lightened my mood, I noticed I was not the only one who bought brand name and fashion masks, to me it just feels good when youre wearing a brand, I even bought the new Marc Jacobs tote, as soon as it came out at Bloomingdales, huge brand name bag for only $200, seemed like a steal to me, and traded in my Saks Fifth Off Valentino bag, with the V in studs in black leather, maybe I wasn’t the only one scaling down in the fashion department, the best season was sweatpant and sweatshirt season at Zara, it was like a dream come true, besides mom jeans, I collect anytime I find a pair, it doesn’t matter if its Forever 21 or Seven For All Man Kind Jeans, I bought em, invested in Jeans is a commitment, and so is weight loss, you ultimately have to make the decision, what size to get, and for some reason as soon as I commit to a size, I lose weight, maybe that means in paying attention to my body frame, I start to make better food choices and take better care of myself, so don’t overspend if you gain weight would be my best advice, what sweatpants were for back in the day. So for the first 6 months of COVID I ran everyday, and also made it a point to blog everyday, and to me that was staying positive, even if it meant going on two hour runs in a mask, I had blogging goals in mind. And as I added things to my website, distribution (blogpros), and analytics (alexa and google), my blog began to grow, not the usual 2,000 people reading I presume, not with blogpros, it will be on other platforms that you get likes that don’t show up on your blog, still not sure how that system works for traffic, but Im assuming that’s just in getting your name out there, and being in circulation, is how you get to know other authors, and how other authors get to know you, including those writing novels and books, Twitter has a great community of writers, who go by #writerslifts to promote one another and get followers, it’s a nice way of working on a project, sharing your progress, and sharing your work amongst other dedicated bloggers, there is no one system for finding eachother, its probably like most careers, you know whos out there based on what you are focused on career wise get to know others in the community. Everyone loves, JMStorm, RobertMDrake, Ive been collecting quotes since 2017, when I first started learning blogging, they were the only quotes on cards by google search, and now we have pinterest, its always fun to follow the quotes accounts on Twitter, when I thought to myself, why don’t I commit to writing my best wisdom, on cards too, and that’s how book writing got started, you don’t really have a story, until you have a purpose, I don’t think that’s what autobiographies are for, although therapeutic to recall your life, and write from memory your past, it probably best to keep track as you go, like in a diary or journal, I kept those things too, from elementary school and college, its not sad to hear from yourself when you were younger, whats sad is that you didn’t have a therapist, and survived most of life, and breakups on your own, with or without friends, drugs or alcohol, I cant believe I ever did that to myself, cope with substances, but once you get in the habit of numbing, it can derail your progress before things start to get better for you, why I chose writing, and Im sure that my addictive qualities come through in my disciplined efforts to participate everyday, and to be social on messenger, if I had a job Im sure I would be the same way, with as much energy and enthusiasm for learning a new job, getting promoted, or helping to train others, Im one of those who is promoted at every job, that’s probably because Im so conservative at work, take a lot of notes, and don’t socialize, a work horse, you don’t have to work that fast to be a good worker, or work that many hours to be considered a hard worker, I think whats most impressive in anyone who is working, whether that’s in an office, or witnessing someones growth online as a writer or blogger, or website, is the quality of the work, its always a plus to be detailed, just don’t be too possessive over your work, if its being published online, that’s the part of me that is constantly letting go, if I was concerned about ideas, and making everything mine, it would take forever to publish a book and be known as unique for one specific work to stand out amongst the rest, have faith, practice makes perfect, and it seems like based on my progress the reverse route is more convenient as an author, to share without pay, and then work towards completing a work that you are proud of and by the time you publish, people already know you, to me that was by default, not having the money to publish a book, writing it, but not publishing it. When it is a good time to become known, I think being in a stable place, if you have mental health issues, or are sharing about some kind of trauma you went through, make sure that you can handle attention, and also make sure that attention on you does not trigger and unwanted attention to anyone close to you, who when asking about you, doesn’t upset them, based on where you were in life, or are now, and easy conversation to have about you, you cant write a script for what is said about you. Interestingly enough, doing better, for me, meant applying for jobs again, I think that was always the goal with blogging, not passing the time, working towards earning a job, and having something to show for myself, given all my ups and downs, progress, and years not spent working at law firms, follow your heart, it seems like an easier job, but its not. Blogging is just as time consuming as any other job, you have to continue your education, take tech courses, learn basic coding, study all the apps and widgets, and improve your content, free read books, come up with styles of writing that work best for you and your audience, that I would credit to my undergrad upper division writing course “multi-genre writing,” so it might look like schizophrenia, I wish I took a screenplay course, I registered for one, but never took the class, I have always been amazed with the dialogue that gets inserted in a book, I go to myself, how do they know how to do that, I only know how to write my thoughts and do legal research and writing assignments, and know how to write a research paper or honors thesis. What are your strengths and go from there, so as it turns out becoming a quotes writer, I promise you that was not an extended ode to famous attorneys past, purposefully, it was maybe the word court on Twitter that prompted, thinking in one verse at a time, and that “taken out of context” rule, one of the most amazing rules on the planet, got me in the habit of making sense in a sentence, that even if read on its own, doesn’t need the background information for what else has been written, to read into or to know what the statement is about, and maybe that’s the benefit of people getting to know you, knowing whats really you, or just a manifestation of a mental health issue, that’s when the habit and pattern of a persons behavior and words if studied come to benefit the reader who by observation, can tell exactly how a person is doing, whether you know them well or not, its different being examined, than it is to examine the work of another, its not the same amount of pressure while thinking, being watched presents a new issue that if youre not familiar with is called “freezing” its that cant keep moving, get disciplined, study, your mind gets stuck on what people are thinking instead of thinking for yourself, and that can be a stifling process constantly waiting on others to know how to feel, Im assuming its similar to co-dependency, when you get manipulated or pushed into a feeling, and then don’t get those reassurances back from the provoker, so basically if that was a problem in relationships, knowing I have disability, when I decided to conquer the world and become a top blogger, I didn’t know how big I would get on the inside, not in the bossy sense of being above anyone or more experienced, it just gave me that confidence and energy back to say you know I started with nothing and became something online, and to me that has been a great experience, the learning curve, don’t be intimidated by it, challenge yourself, I was almost also willing to take a web development coding class at General Assembly, but finished my Masters in Law instead, because it was already almost complete, and now going to study life coaching, that was the funny part about writing quotes, I later found out there is a profession for that, how fitting. Why just follow your heart! You’ll get there, if I ended up somewhere going from lost to website blogger known, who cares how you got there, its pretty cool just to get likes and be followed, I will never know what that enthusiasm is like, to find someone new, and to hear their story and want to check on them continuously, I guess that’s my infatuation with DA Spitzer right now, there are so many people to be proud of in life. So in talking about this post “my future,” year it would be a cool idea to be a blogging platform, to promote other bloggers, it seems like people were offering to be included last Spring 2020, offered to buy and people offering to write for free and guest post, you know that’s a compliment when someone sees your work and what you put together, after taking two General Assembly classes in Tech, and wants to be apart of what you have going for you, I even got asked to be featured on a Positivity Blog submit an interview, and was nominated for a Blogging Award last year. That’s not fluff, that’s applying yourself, having the numbers or content to qualify, then be recognized as standing out from among the rest noted for your work completed thus far, where this road will take me who knows, Im just glad that Im on it, and have the option to grow my blog, first things first, learn how to help others one-on-one, that would come before labeling myself in any category of writing, if not based on my own experiences, work with any vulnerable populations, the more skills the better, always doing my best!