Hello~

A lot happened this year—in the blogosphere, in the world, in everywhere.

In the midst of everything, I realized something I’ve dreamt about one day being “worthy” of doing, but haven’t. I haven’t done it, because in me lies a feeling of guilt that I, for whatever reason, haven’t any right to do it. My critics will criticize even further—but I, as a reader myself, value them even more when bloggers whose blogs I love and read regularly do the same.

It’s this:

Thanks for reading my blog

It is because of the people I have met through blogging that I have developed a better understanding of the world around me—that there are different cultures and people struggle differently. Before I began blogging, my mind was super closed up. I was prejudice because I stayed in a bubble. It was not only harmful to others, but harmful to me as well.

‘Tis my readers who ground me, who help me remember that, yeah, my blog is about me, but it’s not just about me. Practice makes better, but feedback makes best. It took me a long while to become comfortable receiving constructive criticism in a way that is not personal, but on a helpful level—to not feel like I’m constantly being personally attacked. I’m grateful for those who stayed during that time, for those who’ve seen me at my worst.

Whereas I once compared myself to everyone within my vicinity, I try to be better than the person I was yesterday—and it helps. I did at one time, in those early days of this blog, think myself better than everyone; but deep down, I thought myself worse than everyone. But I’ve since learned the only person I can compare against myself is myself, because everyone is different. Of course I’m going to think myself shitty when I pit myself against someone else. It’s a journey, but I’m working on it.

I also want to thank the peeps who have purchased things via my [few] affiliate links from this blog (or perhaps when it was 6birds.net). Seldom do I discuss my homelife hereon my blog, because I don’t know what is even going to happen until it happens. I did have money troubles this year, though, and…even though I don’t make much from it, it does help me fund bits of my life—like paying for my cell phone, which comes in handy when I’m out (agoraphobia) because it means I don’t have to face law enforcement (policophobia) or touch someone else’s/a public phone (mysophobia). Also! to buy free-from foods. I’ve been much less sick this year because I’ve been consuming better stuff. 😊

Love, Jane. 🤗

It’s worth noting I have a bit of a cold and am tired at the time of recording this. 🤧 (I should be sleeping, but am rushing to finish stuff I need to do.) 🤔 I suppose my stutter and speech errors (malapropisms, for example) are totes obvi in the audio, but I wanted to give you guys some kind of gift. 🎁 A recording of my voice has been requested in the past…sorry it’s taken me several years to finally get around to it. 😅

Also! Please excuse my dear self for not saying 2017; I wrote this post last year.