SOPHIE LI

Hello everyone!

Whoa. I am a bit intimidated to write this post. It is one thing to wrap up a month but…….. an entire year!?! I am not even sure if I remember everything that happened this year, since I have a memory of a goldfish.

However, let’s have a crack at it and see how it goes!

Reading

Read 55 books! WHICH IS MORE THAN I’VE EVER READ IN A YEAR! Though there are many amazing peeps who read many more books out there (I don’t know how you guys do it), 55 books is still very very amazing for me :’)

Discovered some amazing authors, like Becky Albertalli, V.E. Schwab, and Jasmine Warga, who I will follow to the end of the Earth until the end of time.

Fell back in love with reading. I was a big reader back in elementary school and high school. Then something happened in university (academic journal articles and pharmacology textbooks, to be exact), and… I stopped. For a long stretch of time, I thought that fiction was fiction and that though I loved reading, books can’t help me in life. But I realized that I was wrong. Because in stories, we find ourselves and we become more accepting of other people.

Blogging

Started a blog and STUCK TO IT. To be honest, I’ve had a few failed attempts at starting blogs in the past. This time around, because I discovered the book blogging community which made all the difference! I found some amazing blogs and met some awesome people that made me want to keep blogging!

Wrote 100+ posts!!! A week or so ago, I got an alert from WordPress congratulating me on 100 posts. And I thought, “What? It can’t be?!” BUT IT WAS!!

Blogged about some topics (bookish and otherwise) that matter a lot to me. Here are some of my favourite posts:

1. Stereotypes in Fiction
2. On Being an Introvert
3. The Upside of Being Alone
4. 5 Reasons to Pole Dance
5. Come See China with Me

I’ve always been a quiet person, but in blogging, I learned more about myself 🙂

Writing

Edited a novel for the first time (and the second, and the third.) AND WOW, writing a novel is one thing, but PERFECTING it is a whole different beast.

Posted snippets of my novel on this blog. Which is a SCARY, SCARY thing at first, but hearing others’ feedback is something I grew to enjoy.

Learned the value of plotting and research.

Dscovered other writers through blogging. For once in my life, I realized that I am not writing in a vacuum, and that there are other people who love writing as much as I do.

Life

Drove across Canada (Toronto to Vancouver), which was a super DUPER fun road trip. And WOW, Canada is a beautiful country.

Travelled to Banff, Hawaii, and China. I can’t pick a favourite place: They are wonderful in different ways.

Prepared to move across the country, which involved job interviews, apartment hunting, and figuring out what is happening with my professional license (ultimate #adulting, you guys).

AND, last but not least…

I got engaged 🙂

And that’s all!

Of course there were a few things that I’ve set out to do in the beginning of the year that I didn’t get around to doing- books that I wanted to read, healthier eating and sleeping habits, home decorating, blog-renovating, minimalism… However, I accept that there is only so much that I can do with my time. In hindsight, I have no regrets 🙂

How did this year go for you? What are some of the highlights? What are your proudest accomplishments?