Under Construction

A week from today, I will have been writing this blog for three years. We've been through a lot of changes in this internet space, from the name change (shoutout to people who've been following me since this was called AFROdisiAccordingtoMe) to all sorts of mood shifts. Blogging has helped me get through and document two major moves, getting into and out of various relationships, writing a thesis, and coming to understand Princeton as a place of the past. Getting into the "reblog" about a year and a half ago has helped me to feel like I exist in a community of scholars, thinkers, wonderers, and change-makers. This space has grown from a platform for introspection to a platform for celebration and for feeling celebrated. I am a blogger, and that's not going to change anytime soon, but a lot of things about my particular corner of the internet are going to change.

So please bear with me as I take a week-long hiatus to get everything ready for our dramatic 3 year blogaversary unveiling. I'm Such an AFROholic will return next week with all sort of nifty new trimmings!

Two. Dos. Duex. Due. Mbili.

(I had to look that last one up. It's Swahili and seemed appropriate.)

 
That's how old my blog is today. I published my first post on January 10th of 2010, halfway through my sophomore year at Princeton. (Side note: oh my word, my hair has come such a long way since then.) For the vast majority of my life, January 10th has held no particular significance, but on that date in 2010, I decided that straightening my hair was no longer a lifestyle choice I was going to make. I was on a mission to get to know who I was underneath everything I'd been doing for other people, and to bare that self to the world in the process. "Crisis" is a strong word for where I was this, but this was definitely the beginning of my quarter-life identity struggle. 

And today, two years later, I'm pretty amazed at how far this weird little project I started has gone, and how much farther I expect it will go. When I hit the "publish" button, this will be my 809th post. I had 155 pageviews yesterday, which is a record for the blog. I have 21 followers through Google (shoutout to the 5 that have joined me within the last week! Glad to have you!), 8 people who subscribe to my RSS feed, and it has actually gotten to the point where it's not uncommon for me to be walking around campus and have someone mention my blog or one of my recent posts. Getting an email telling me someone has commented on a post can put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. Basically, I think that over the past year, I've really embraced my identity as a "blogger," rather than just being a person who happens to have this little blog thing. This blog and the people who read it are so important to me. 

This past year saw a name change (for those who don't know, I'm Such an Afroholic used to be AFROdisiAccordingtoMe), which was a pain in the butt to execute, but which I'm so happy I did. The new name feels more like me. It saw me learning how to find balance between talking about my life and talking about the lives of other people who are in my life; my own personal openness doesn't mean I have the right to put other people on blast. It saw an unplanned hiatus in the Spring, followed by more blogging than I'd ever done before through the summer and continuing into the present. It saw the introduction of various new page elements: The Hits, the Twitter log, updates from other websites I like, as well as of the "reblog," as I have started following almost 200 other blogs and want to share their awesomeness with you all. 

I really like the direction I've gone in with the blog, even if it is somewhat awkwardly half-Tumblr half blog at times, and I hope you guys are happy with it, too. I'm learning so much about myself and getting into such fabulous discussion with other people as a result of this project, and here's to another year of that and more! It wouldn't be the same without you guys, readers, so here's a round of applause to you. 

Much love,

Maya

Cheesy Blogaversary Post

Sunday marked a whole YEAR of me keeping this blog, and that should be celebrated! I don't know if I thought I'd stay with it this long when I started it...I hadn't really put all that much thought into it, but though school/life sometimes wins over me updating this regularly, it means so much to me and here's to hoping I have another year of wonderments and misadventures to share with all of you! Yay!