This past Thursday I was nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award! As a fairly new blogger and now first-time blogging award winner, I’m super excited! I want to thank What She Did Next for nominating me for this award. Anika’s got a wonderful blog and I hope you’ll check it out!
I was also just nominated by Paulette from Blog in Love It, and another from BackStoryBeauty! Thank you so much! Be sure to check out their blogs as well!
Okoto Enigma is the creator of the Mystery Blogger Award. You can find out more about it here. Thank you for creating this award!
RULES
1. Add the awards logo to your blog.
2. List the rules
3. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to them
4. Mention the award creator and link to them
5. List 3 things about yourself
6. Answer the questions your nominator asked
7. Share a link to your best post/posts
8. Nominate 10-20 people and notify them
9. List your 5 questions for them to answer in their posts
Three things about me:
- I’m a fairly recent graduate of Computer Science and am now a Programmer Analyst. I enjoy writing code and developing projects in and out of work and am currently working on one with one of my closest friends.
- I play drums, guitar, and piano, and have dabbled with a few other instruments. My parents play as well and our family get-togethers always involve music.
- I love changing up my look, whether that’s with makeup, hair, or outfits. I feel like I don’t have much of a signature style because of it – one day I’m wearing a pastel sundress, the next a studded sweater and ripped jeans. At some point I do intend to simplify all this, though!
Who inspires you?
It’s hard for me to say one person! I think every person in your life has an influence on you in one way or another, and in the same way, there are so many people that inspire me.
My family inspires me because they motivate me to keep working hard. I don’t think I’d be anywhere close to where I am otherwise. And my closest friends give me the inspiration to keep learning and discovering new things.
Why did you start your blog?
College was a big time for me to discover a lot of things about myself. I found happiness in taking part in roles where I was able to help and guide others – and see them benefit from it. Above everything, I wanted to help people who I knew I could help, and I wanted to make everyone happy.
I was always interested in lifestyle influencers as well, probably since middle school when I remember seeing it for the first time on YouTube. At that time though, I didn’t see myself as becoming one.
I started reading The Happiness Project and one of Gretchen Rubin’s tasks as a result of the project was to create a blog. Not only did I decide to do my own version of the project, but I also realized that starting a blog could be a way of continuing what I started in college. I figure that, even if one person enjoyed my content, that it would be worth it to me.
If you were in charge of the world what changes would you make?
This is a hard question! I think I would have to go to each country and understand what I can do specifically to help each one. I’d also like to put a stop to any tensions between countries in order to stop war and conflict.
(Now that I’m thinking about this I wonder what it would be like to have a leader of the world. And what would the process of choosing someone look like? What are the qualifications? Okay, now I’m just thinking aloud…I’m sorry)
If you could travel to any part of the world where would you go? And why?
I’d really like to go to Sicily one day. For one, it’s a big part of my heritage and I want to learn more about the region and culture by living it. (And I know that we practice a lot of similar things in my family, but traditions change over many years!)
Coming from the outskirts of New York City, I want to go someplace with a different culture. Even when studying in Florida, I noticed how different people’s values are and what different lifestyles we lead. I was too much of a workaholic at school, and the people I met weren’t as much like that. They were able to show me that I’ve crossed the line of doing too much at once and that it’s okay to relax. Hadn’t I lived that, it would have taken me a much longer time to realize that. I want to experience what others live and what I’m not used to.
I also would love for the opportunity to keep practicing my Italian, and regardless of me going to Sicily, I’d love to learn the dialects of southern Italy and Sicily. The dialect reflects the presence of the many different cultures that settled there, and I’d like to learn more about the history of all of those cultures. (Regardless of me being able to go, I will still be learning this!)
What piece of advice would you give to someone starting a blog?
My biggest piece of advice would be to know what you’re getting into before getting started. I love blogging, but it is a lot of work, and even though I read up on expectations I didn’t really get it until I started. Don’t let that discourage you, though! As long as you have a plan and read up on how to do well it simplifies a lot of things.
Once you get started, it can be a little weird. Sometimes you feel you’re supposed to be further along, or lack confidence, or get frustrated. I go in detail about that a little more in this post. But that’s all normal and okay. There’s no competition with blogging – set your own goals and don’t fret about how well your blog is doing. I’ve been slow to build my blog up, but that’s okay. There’s no rush.
My best post: Simple Ways to Dress Up Your Bullet Journal
I nominate
Be sure to check out their blogs! If you have been chosen and would like to accept the award, here are the questions I have for you:
- Why did you start blogging?
- What are your goals? This could be related to blogging, life, etc., and can be short or long-term goals.
- If you could send a message to everyone in the world at once, what would it say?
- What’s one thing you’d like people to know about you?
- If you could live anywhere, where would you go?
I also want to extend my nominations to you, readers, because I want to see your blogs too! Even if you don’t have a blog, comment your answers below! I’d love to learn more about you.
Thank you again to What She Did Next, Blog In Love It , and BackStoryBeauty for this award!
Sincerely,
Julie Anna
Your blog is amazing Julie Anna and I’ve gained some great tips that I’m going to put into practice. Keep up the great work!!
Thank you so much! <3