A Retrospective Account of 2016!

I honestly entered this year with little/no dreams or aspirations. There were no 'this year, I must do this' talks. I was just normal. Nothing more, nothing less. Using my phone's gallery as a guide, I decided to break my 2016 down and lessons learnt. This post might be picture overload but I'd try to keep it short and simple.

JANUARY
No blog post from me because this blog didn't exist till sometime around 24th and I still wasn't sure. I wasn't particularly ecstatic about it because I made the mistake of wanting everything to be perfect not just before starting but even before telling anyone. I probably told just two people because I didn't want any external motivation which turned out well if you ask me. The highlight of the month for me apart from having a blog URL in my name was baking bread rolls for the first time.

FEBRUARY
 I had to resume school and that kinda put blog work on the back end but I still managed to publish my first post on the 21st! I can't even remember where I was or how I felt that day. Classes for me were really interesting. I guess the thrill of learning something entirely different was still there.

Food Commodities

Biochemistry 

Human Physiology

My archives show that I have 6 posts but it's technically 2. My First post and another post on Choosing Positivity


MARCH
 My birth month, yo! Psst, I wasn't that excited. Check out My birthday  post if you need any more confirmation. I was slowly warming up to the blogger status in March or maybe not seeing as I published only one post that month. Bad bad blogger. Highlight of the month had to be the numerous cakes I got to eat.

APRIL
 The 4th month of the year seems just like yesterday looking at the pictures. I had too many deep and emotional moments in April judging from my No day is normal post

and deep pictures like

I had many spontaneous moments too - learning lessons from a firefly I saw and jumping from my bed to make chinchin because of boredom and then getting tired/bored while at it that I ended up cutting them so big, they looked like chips. How hilarious. I also shared this health related post on On why you shouldn't rub your itchy eye. I didn't expect that post to have this many views! I guess that kind of encouraged me in this blogging business even though I still hadn't told most people.


MAY
 I regard this month as a really special one probably because the men in my life - dad and brother - were born in this month. When I was drafting this post, I was so sure that I had a couple of posts in May.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I posted just once! I'm a huge Sidney Sheldon fan so I had to write something on one of his books "If Tomorrow Comes"

JUNE
 I fell sick during exams but thankfully it didn't affect my exams. Exams=Holiday. Holiday = Boredom. Boredom = Me starting skincare research + Joining Pinterest. On the blog front, there was a post on The Liebster Award.

JULY
 Mid year. This was when I started taking blogging serious. I was playing with apps, trying to get a blog header. I even had a customised picture for one of my posts.

I did a lot of stepping out of my comfort zone. I guess I had a "paradigm shift" this month seeing the number of things that went down.
- I entered for my very first essay competition. Topic was "Formal Education And The Nigerian Youth : Why is the street taking over?" Writing it was fun but looking for footnotes to attach wasn't. I made it to the next stage of the competition but I didn't win.
- I picked up a spelling competition form for myself. It later held in August. I scaled through the first two stages, made it to the finals and then there was this internal strike in school so the finals ain't holding anymore. Not too good but I made it! Who knows, I might have won. Hopefully
- I wrote my first post for Kamdora which I reblogged Here 2 months later. It felt so cool!
On the blog, I posted a Review of June, beauty hacks you might want to know, some midnight ramblings and a post on what to do when you go from 100-0 Consistency is truly king. I can remember how my page views went up this month.


AUGUST
This month had me realizing that if I don't want to be average, I have to learn to deal with criticism and stop hiding under the covers. On the blog, we had this post where I shared the pains of having long/big feet in Long/Big Feet Palava

and also my honest thoughts on the topic called fashion. You can read that up HERE


SEPTEMBER
 I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for quotes describing my mood. Highlight of the month was joining Instagram. I know I'm still going to dedicate a post to my IG story. It has really helped to be honest with the telling people about the blog thingy. Yesss world, I have a blog and I want you to check it out! Follow me @Laitanbee. On the blog, there was the Wedding thrills post where I shared few things I was looking forward to on my wedding day , a post on Staying true to yourself, the Meat question post, a post where I shared A moment of excited curiosity and finally one on Reasons you might be breaking out

OCTOBER
 I had to do a whole lot of self loving this month. There was this day I felt so alone and bored and I walked all the way to the junction of my street just to get junk food to raise my spirits. I started my phone vlogging too. Long story, how I started. If I ever have my YouTube channel, I'd share it. The first day, I recorded like 6 times! The posts for the month were a Review of September in the taking stock format, a post on Why you shouldn't look to others for validation. I shared life lessons from my Pancake fails, the reasons Why I love keeping my nails, and one on why you should Walk deliberately. I rounded off the month with this shocking post on the Abusive relationship I was in. Not anymore, thankfully.


NOVEMBER
 Nothing much went down in my personal life apart from being bombarded with tests. On the blog, I shared my Favorite movies of all time, lessons learnt from Joyce Meyer's The confident woman Too much information post even though readers said I didn't reveal much. Hehe

DECEMBER
 Basically exams. 30 days gratitude challenge .

Had friends over for lunch to 'celebrate' a successful academic year. I won two giveaways. Whoop. Even though I suck at painting, I tried out a DIY two-toned nails and this came out.

I shared a  Review of November, quick Life update and my Top 5 favorite things about Christmas  which featured giveaways. Whoop.

Are you still here with me? Yaay, thanks. It's my last post for the year so permit how lengthy it is. It's been a wonderful blogging year. A wonderful wonderful one and I'm super excited for next year and also grateful for all the amazing people I've met so far. The blogosphere is such a wonderful place and I'm glad I belong here. Thanks to every single person that opened my blog, read my posts .I honestly did not think I'd have over 10k pageviews before the blog clocks one. What am I saying? I honestly did not see myself taking the blog this serious. So maybe when anyone complains about my stubbornness, I'd tell them I have something to show for it. Thanks for the wonderful comments too. They're super encouraging.

How was 2016 for you in one word? Mine was thrilling.
Where would you be spending New Year's Day? For me, church first then back home.
What would you like me to improve on in the coming year? Santa is still sharing gifts so if you want to get yours, you have to answer that question.
Most importantly, what are you most grateful for this year?
Kindly leave me your comments. I'd love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful 2017. Lots of love and kisses. xxxxxx

P.S : I'm kidding about the Santa thingy but seriously, what would you like to see more of and what area(s) would you want me to work on? I'm blogging for both of us so your opinions definitely count. xx