simpleek

There’s something about the end of the year and birthdays that always puts me in a reflective state of mind. Maybe it’s because I have a tendency to go inward a lot and I’m not afraid to take an honest look at how I did this year or how I’m doing so far, as far as personal growth and life goals go. I always find something hopeful about the promise of a new year or age because I see them as an opportunity to do something differently with my life or change the course of my current direction if I’m not happy with where I’m at or where I’m going. It’s time I close out 2015 with an end of the year reflection for my blog.

Despite trying to juggle both my personal life and internet life, I’m amazed by the amount of dedication and passion I manage to still invest on this blog on a weekly basis. I’ll admit that 2015 has been filled with personal challenges, which sometimes nearly threatened to zap whatever motivation and commitment I have to this blog. I can’t say the challenges have gone away completely, but I’ve learned to handle them in the best way possible without it interfering with my creativity and drive to stick things out when life may sometimes throw you unexpected curveballs.

My completion ratio for video game challenges has been surprisingly high in 2015. Looking back on all the posts I’ve done for my challenges has seen less failures, which is impressive to me. Part of 2015’s video game challenges have been occupied by last year’s hit release of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but after that, it has been full steam ahead with other video games that needed my love and attention. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm and commitment to this ongoing project on my blog has eventually turned into a near burn out phase for me towards the end of the year. Breaks are necessary when you need time to recharge and refocus your life on other things that need your attention. I also reached a new phase in the last month or so when I preferred watching Netflix or Hulu while stretched out on my bed.

Speaking of Netflix and Hulu, my renewed interest in watching TV instead of playing video games has seen a surge in more anime watching. The last few years has been a dry spell when it came to anime watching, mainly because I either didn’t have the time or all I wanted to do with my free time was play video games. Strange how interests can shift in an instant. Rediscovering my love for anime has allowed me to watch series I’ve started a really long time ago but never finished, or finally watch shows I’ve been meaning to watch like Death Note. I’m not sure how long my interest in anime watching will look like going into 2016, but I’m hoping I can at least fit in one series here and there.

I do my best by varying the content I have on my blog from week-to-week, but I recognize now it isn’t always easy to have a post ready to talk about fashion or manga. Both of these topics either hasn’t inspired any reason to talk about them or, in the case for manga, I haven’t been able to invest much time into them. It seems to me there will be one or two topics that will go neglected as the year progresses. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about maintaining a blog for the past four years is you never know what topics might end up sprouting in a whole year. You just go where the ideas flow.

My hopes for this blog in 2016 are the same as the previous years––keep writing new and interesting content and find the time to keep the blog up-to-date. You may think this task is simple, but it really isn’t when you put it up against everything else you have to deal with outside your internet life. I’m giving this blog everything I’ve got and I can say the return I gain from this is always my readers. I say this a lot, but you all are truly the reason I keep writing. Writing and thoughts are meant to be shared and it brings people together. Without any of my words reaching at least one person, there’s no reason to keep this up. So thank you forever and for always for taking the time to visit and read my posts.

The start of 2016 will see this blog go on a brief break. The first week of January I will be going on a cruise to the Caribbean. As some of you may already know I like to travel a lot, especially when the opportunity is there for me to go to new places away from my city for a time. I’m doing the snowbird thing by flying and then sailing to warmer climate, but I’ll be back the week of January 11. I may not be able to write a new post by then, but I’m hoping I can slowly reintroduce myself back into doing my video game challenges for the month of January.  We’ll have to see how things go. Happy New Year and see you all in 2016!