It seems incredibly fitting that, around the time that this project finishes up, I get one of the biggest real life offers that came as a result of my writing. An offer that happens to come the exact same day as a print photoshoot gig in Rhode Island, a go-see nearly an hour away from the shooting location, and a yoga class back up in NH (and the first three happen all before 1:15), but that's a tale of plotting left for another day. And, well, another blog.
I feel like I picked a very good year to do something as ridiculous as this. We had just closed on a house and I was figuring out WTF I was doing next. I had just quit doing the one thing I thought was tailor made for me and found myself reevaluating everything. It documented (most) of my yoga teacher training. I was able to talk about what was going on in my life in a way that you just can't unless you're forcing yourself to write every single day. I got to talk about huge milestones in my life, like releasing my collection of essays or finishing M#3 or submitting to the ABNA contest.
But I think most importantly, it gave me a vehicle to turn a lot of blah-blah-blah opinions in my head into something a little more cohesive. These were the baselines for almost all of my articles out -- and there's a lot of articles out right now. I did the math, and -- not including self-publishing platforms like Medium -- I published over 50 articles in the past year.
This project wasn't easy. Somewhere along the line, I got so bloody tired of writing every.single.day that I stopped proofreading entirely. I stopped reading over old entries to make sure I didn't type out the wrong words (which is kind of my specialty. "Through" when I mean "throw", "down" when I mean "done" ... I'd love to sever the synaptic connections that decided those words should be bundled up). There were days when I was so damn sick of writing a blog post. All throughout NaNoWriMo, I felt like I was dredging each and every single world out of a swamp. Wasn't easy being on vacation, either, and realizing that the day wasn't complete unless I typed something up.
But I did it. Dear Lord, I did it. And, while some posts were definitely sloppy, I know I am a better writer because of it. I'm a lot less hesitant. I'm more willing to put myself out there. And I was able to articulate thoughts that might've just stayed silent inside my mind (everything from essay ideas to teacher-related issues).
In a way, I have this blog to thank for everything I've been able to do in the past year. I wouldn't have been as active of a writer on Thought Catalog had I not had this blog to get every idea out -- which would've resulted in me not only being in less great of a standing with the editors of the joint, but less able to write out stories of my model mishaps (both of which would've contributed to a whole lotta no-ebook). The confidence of finally having some work out there is what reignited my agency search (and -- fun fact -- still as fruitless as it was before, but still! You just need one yes...).
It's incredibly bittersweet to say this is the last official entry, but it is time to move on to bigger and better things. Well, I don't know about bigger -- how in the world could I top an entry a day unless I'm doing multiple entries a day? But it is time for the next phase in things. And, coincidentally enough, it feels like my life in general is gearing up to really start that next phase. From promising yoga teaching opportunities to opportunities to expand with my writing. The part of me that felt incredibly lost as a former-teacher now feels incredibly confident as a future-RYT.
It's interesting to read the last paragraph in the very first post in this: This might turn out to be the best idea I ever had. This might turn out to be the be worst. Only time will tell. But regardless, this is Day One. Of three hundred, sixty five. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that, yes, this really was one of the best ideas I've had.
So this is me signing off on the 365 Blog Project. I'll leave this post -- I'll leave this project -- with the very first sentence I wrote this time last year. A bit of advice every writer needs, regardless of their level of success, regardless of their proficiency, whether they're creating their own 365 blog or just hoping to finish a story, a paragraph, or even a passing thought:
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