Do you know what tomorrow is!? It’s my third anniversary of blogging! I can’t believe that I have been blogging for THREE YEARS. I feel like time has flown by and I’m so grateful for each and every experience I’ve had during this time. I truly feel that I’ve grown significantly from the first year I started blogging, and I hope you all feel and see that as well within my work.

Three years is a long time to commit to something and to put your blood, sweat, and tears into. I always said that it’s important to remember your why for doing what you’re doing. So today, I want to share with you guys my “why’s” aka the reasons why I’ve made it this far into blogging and why I chose to do this as a career.

I get to voice my thoughts.

When it comes to practically anything involving being vocal, I’m better at expressing myself through writing/typing. I’ve never been the kind of person who was the best at expressing myself vocally. I guess I can just gather my thoughts better and it’s easier to make sense of what I’m saying or trying to say. With blogging, I get the chance to voice the thoughts in my head that maybe even no one that knows me knew about. This is why it was important for me to have a “Thoughts” section as part of my blog. I’m able to share what I feel and have conversations with you guys on these things. This is truly the “diaries” part of my blog name.

I have a chance to showcase my creative mind.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved to get creative with things. I had these ideas of how I wanted things to look or what I wanted to do. The problem is, I never had the artistic hands to match the creative mind. I can barely draw a stick person and it’s hard for me to figure certain things out. When I started blogging, that also meant I became a content creator and I had to create my own images, promos, etc. This suddenly became my time to shine! Because I’m not a professional and I don’t have all that software, my ideas don’t look 100% the way they do in my mind, but you can still see so much of my creativity shine through! If you’ve stuck with me since the beginning, then you can truly see the growth in my content. I just love thinking of new ways to expand. It can become stressful when you start raising the bar and providing people with expectations, but it helps you grow and I have fun trying new things that help me elevate.

The community.

I know that if you love something, other people shouldn’t matter or affect that, but community matters. The blogging community has truly helped me pull through and I’m so grateful to have met some great bloggers through this journey. I get that not EVERYONE is a “team player” in the community, but you have to follow the right people. Who you follow matters.

The community I’ve been so grateful to find not only makes me feel motivated and provides me with great tips, but they also are people who remain themselves which helps remind me that I can just be me and I don’t have to be so professional and polished. That was never my intent, but there’s something about being a blogger for so long that makes you slip into the blogger personality without even realizing it. I feel like it’s okay to cuss, it’s okay to be the jokester that I am, it’s okay to talk about alcohol or going to the club…it’s okay to just be me. That balance of being a businessperson and remaining true to who you are is so important to have.

I love the freedom of being self-employed.

Being self-employed is A LOT of work and this is coming from someone who hasn’t even fully submerged their toe into the water yet. There’s so much to it, but with becoming a blogger, I love that I can create my own schedule. This year and part of last year is really where I’ve gotten the chance to do that. I love waking up knowing that I’m on my own time. I don’t have to worry about following other people’s rules or making sure I’m following company policy. My policy IS company policy!

It’s just an amazing feeling and there’s no way that I can go back to being on someone else’s schedule. I can choose when to take my lunch break and how long I want to work for the day. I have full control of how I want my days to look and for me, that’s having work to do but being in an entirely different city, state, or even country doing it. You can’t do that with a regular job and I love that I have that option.

I found where I belong.

Lastly, with finding blogging, I finally found where I belong. I’ve told this story before, but when I was in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do besides help people. I knew there were two ways: Nursing and Psychology. Though graduating with a psychology degree, I discovered neither was truly for me. I love helping people and giving advice but it just had to be in a different way…blogging was my way. Now, not only am I blogging but I’m podcasting, I’m on online magazine articles, and I’m growing from just a blog to an empire. Becoming a blogger has opened and is continuing to open doors for me in ways I could never imagine. All I ever wanted to do was help people, but blogging has also helped me.

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I can’t say this enough…I’m so grateful for all of you guys! Whether you joined the family yesterday or you’ve been with me from the start…support is support. I plan on becoming popular as an entrepreneur ( I prefer not to be famous), and one thing I’ll never forget is where it all started. The Black Princess Diaries brand wouldn’t be what it is/is going to be if it all didn’t start with a blog three years ago.

Cheers to three years (a day early) and many more!