A year in retrospect..

I didn't have time to write this up during the day of the anniversary up to now because of everything I still had to do in school but I'm doing it now so it doesn't really matter. I know it may be a little bit self-centered but I feel like I need to reflect on my year, I need to take the good and the bad - the things I wish I hadn't said but I still did and make my second year even better than this one was.

Getting to one year of blogging is a big thing for me, mainly because my last shot at a music-related blog only lasted for about ten months(Take away the hiatuses I took that's about eight months) and in general, getting past the first year is probably the hardest thing to do, whatever you're doing.

I know it may seem cheesy but I do really remember the day I wrote my first review like it was yesterday. I remember telling myself that I wasn't going to write one or two paragraphs on a song just because - I was going to write full-length, five paragraph reviews and do them well.

Reading through that first review, I see how much I've changed over that one short year. My grasp on the subject has tightened and expanded and my writing style, the way I articulate things has changed. I've started using expressions, I've ranted about my musical frustrations but everything I've done leads to one thing - being able to do something I love.

Like everyone else I started this blog from scratch, not knowing what was ahead of me. I grew an audience(mainly from Google-ers, apparently.) and part of that audience is a group of bloggers that I have absolute respect for - I'd kill to be in their position. There were two blogs in particular that really made me want to do this, that I read every time a new post came and that made me freak out when they mentioned me. Don't get me wrong, every single blog listed on the sidebar is outright amazing(I'm dead serious.) but those two blogs drove me, kept me going.

You don't know how loud I screamed and freaked out when Poster Girl said she was looking forward to my year-end countdown last year. I hyperventilated and genuinely freaked out. To know that someone you respect and adore says you're somewhere near good is mind-blowing and it made me want to do this even more.

As if that wasn't enough, I nearly fainted when Paul linked to me several times on his year-end 'best of'. A few days or weeks later, I landed a place on his sidebar. Yeah, I've been linked all over the place(including Poster Girl during the very early stages of the blog, I think.) except FizzyPop!! and I freaked out some more.

All the mentions on what are possibly two of the biggest blogs everrr made my year sweeter and worth every second.

I love getting comments from fellow bloggers but what also made my year worth it was the number of people who visited and the comments I got from them. I don't get hundreds of comments a day but I have gotten a lot over this year. Reading all the comments about the stuff I post makes me smile, I love looking over the discussions and stuff. I've gotten advice, extra info and friendship from those comments - one of them I'll never forget.

It was the start of my year-end countdown when this girl(didn't really know her well then so let's just call her 'girl') started commenting a lot on the entries. I replied and we began talking about stuff, eventually moving over to chatting. I came to know Mel as an amazing writer, someone with a knack for saying exactly what's on our minds and someone extremely into music. She was on street teams and joined contests, got close to the artists and so I wasn't surprised when she got an internship at a major label. What I'll never forget about her is the fact that she has this balance between Top ten tracks, the hottest of hot and rare, hard to find songs. She introduced me to so many new artists, so many amazing songs and made my outlook on American music a little more positive. For that I respect her.

Since I don't exactly live in a huge country, we Filipinos have this reflex that if we come across a fellow Filipino amidst all the foreigners, we stick together and support each other. I have no idea where and how I first came across Ken's blog but I'm glad I did. My main frustration in life is the fact that everyone I meet here only sees foreign artists as Asians or Americans(I'm dead serious! Ask any one of my classmates here who the heck Girls Aloud are and they'll think you're making it up.) so when I saw what TBR was filled with - reviews on US AND UK artists, let's just say I freaked. I read his blog a lot, value his opinions and really, genuinely respect him as a blogger.

So there - that was my year. It was filled with ups and downs, rants and praises but I look to my second year without fear or hesitation. I want to write and I want a future in music, I'm sure of it.