The Only Constant Thing

Image courtesy of Man of Depravity

They say that the only constant thing in life is change. This seems like a huge contrast, but when you really think about it, it's true. Relationships, buildings, trees, even stars will go away. But things will always be changing. Cities will change, currencies will change, relationships will change, situations will change. Most of all, people will change. Things like habits and ideas will change as the person does. Different events in our life help shape and differ who we are as we discover new parts of ourselves. We can also look back on past selves and see how we have improved. There are different ways to look back at your past self, like pictures, essays, and blogs (wink wink). So, I am going to look back on how I have changed through the time I have had this blog (we all saw that coming).

Mostly, I have opened up more. My first posts were just descriptions of events. Things like the sports teams I liked, the teams I was on, just things that happened in my life. I also talked about my family and friends, the other people in my life. Later on, however, my posts got more in depth. They became more about the different aspects and feelings of life. More about the physical and mental obstacles we all face. And more about who I am, as a person. I love that. Being able to open up more about who I am and my life was awesome. This was also a place where I could blow off some steam, have a good little rant, and then actually have people read about my anger!

I also want to talk about where I got my inspiration. Because I definitely stole ideas and put them into my posts. I got these things from people like Allison, Maggie, and a blog called The Happily Ever After Project. They are so creative and inspirational on their blogs. The things they write about are fun to read, impressive, funny, serious, and, at times, perfectly personal. Like the crafts on The Balancing Act. My friend Allison does all these DIYs in her free time (I don't know how she has time, but she's already perfect so it makes sense). I have done a couple of them and my favorite one was the book box. This is where you cut out the inside of a book, modge podge the pages together, and use it as a box. It is so cool! Another one is Beauty and the Beam. The owner of this blog is Maggie, and she is also amazing. I loved looked at her posts about her gymnastics teams and tried to use things like that in my swimming posts.

This blog has been super fun to have, and I'm sad to be saying goodbye. It's okay though, we had a good run.

Signing off,

Natalie.

Here is a pig flying, you are welcome.

Looking Back

Image courtesy of Quotes Valley

This being my second to last post, I'm going to look back on how this blog has changed over time, and how I've changed throughout this school year. First though, a little side note to anyone reading this. I just wanted to say that having this blog has been amazing! What started out justas a graded assignment for an Honors English class has become a place for me to share my feelings with others. I have really loved posting on this blog and watching as people actually read what I had written. Every time I got a new page view, I felt so proud. Just being a tiny part of your guys' day is an honor for me. Thank you for everything, it’s been amazing.

Looking back now to my very first post...this was a welcome post as the enraptured new freshman (me) began to set up her blog. New to high school, she was excited at the prospect of having somewhere to share the "crazy new memories" she was sure to have. Setting up the background, font, and color scheme was super fun. I kept thinking about, the year before. This was when I had been an avid reader of my friend Grace's blog. Since she is a year older than me, I got to watch her blog unfold and was thrilled to be starting my own. Reading what she posted about what she did and where she went was really fun.

Next, developing my blog... when I started this blog I had no idea what I was going to post about. I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the prospect of a theme, or even if I wanted to have a certain theme. I put up a poll to ask for input on a theme, but after a little while I realized that, if I was going to have a theme, it needed to be my idea. After all, it was going to be my name on the blog’s front page. One day, I thought about and decided on a kind of theme. I made the decision that I would begin to post about my life and the different aspects of it. It seemed like a good idea because I would surely be well informed on the subject (tee hee). I started to post about events, sports, obstacles, and different parts of my life that I felt would be worth sharing.

Looking back on how I’ve changed… we all change over time. I’m very lucky because keeping something like a blog is a great way to look back at my past self. It’s really cool to have the ability to do this. Since we have kept blogs over the entire school year, I’m able to look at how I’ve developed as a writer and a person. Over the year, my posts have not only gotten longer, but have been more in depth and personal. I stopped just talking about things I had done and started talking more about the mental features and obstacles of life.

To my beloved readers, thank you.

Me with our school colors.