August 2016 - Rachel Ellen

Monday 8 August 2016

What Makes You an Adult?


As I am 22 years old, I'm well on the way to adulthood, I mean I don't feel or look like an adult but my age tells me I am. There's some things that remind you that you're not a teenager/child anymore some good and some bad. I just wanted to make a list of the things that really stand out to me at the moment!

1. Being left responsible for things/people. When something, or a child needs "keeping an eye on" and you start looking around for that responsible person, and you realise it's you. All trust is on you, anything that goes wrong is down to you, but it shouldn't go wrong because you're an adult. No pressure


2. Talking about houses, cars, marriage, children etc and realising that you could have all of those things if you wanted to and nobody is going to say no to you (if you have the money). That's terrifying, but definitely one of the plus points of being an adult!

3. A silly little thing which has happened to me a lot in the last year, pens running out! I have never had a pen run out on me before in my life, I used to lose them before I even came close to them running out. In this last year I couldn't even count how many pens I've thrown away because they are empty!


(look at these images, I may as well join the minion memes like middle aged people on Facebook)

4. Making your own decisions is a really big deal. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is questionable. I could quit my job tomorrow and nobody could stop me, I could book a plane ticket to America and never return and nobody could stop me doing it, how exciting and scary!

 This is hilarious

5. A bit of a serious one, but finding out about how many people take drugs recreationally, it's something that really doesn't interest me. I thought people didn't do them after the talks we had in school but apparently I was very naive in that aspect! I think just realising that teachers do anything kind of reckless is always crazy! I think we still all have that idea in our head of the teacher living at the school like you thought when you were young!

6. My biggest clue about being an adult is clothing choices. When I moved my bandeau tops from my t-shirt/tops drawer to my underwear drawer I really knew I was growing up. When things are "too short" is another pointer, I had to retire some black hot pants when I was about 20 because they just weren't acceptable anymore, let's keep my bum cheeks covered now!

7. Being able to like what you want is a really big deal for me. When you're at school and college you're so worried about what everyone else will think of your choices. Now, people judge you less and I care less what they think! I love that kids trust your judgement too!



8. Choosing your own bedtime is a really big deal, maybe some people have had control over this for a really long time, I have since I left school. But I end up wanting to go to bed earlier and earlier when I've got the choice!

9. Not understanding the cool new words. As much as I do (kind of) know what Fleek means, I really can't use it seriously in a sentence, it doesn't sound right. I think eventually, our capacity to accept these new words really diminishes. 



 I can't tell you how much I love this picture, especially with the comment "I'm an independent dog who don't need no man!"

10. Being excited about household things, I don't mean like decoration because I think that depends on the person. I mean things like cleaning things. When you see something in a shop and think, I really need that, that will make my bathroom shine! Like, take yourself to the toy aisle and calm down


I hope you enjoyed this post, numbers and memes, it's pretty much a Buzzfeed article. What reminds you that you're an adult? What makes you feel like an adult?

Thanks for reading,

 Rachel xx

Monday 1 August 2016

100th Post!
In Feburary 2014 I posted my first ever blog post, and this is my 100th. Admittedly, a lot of bloggers have posted that many posts in a shorter time, but I'm still proud. 

Although I've had a lot of inconsistency and a few lengthy breaks from blogging, I'm so proud of how long I've stuck at it. I even feel like I might have got better at it.

Why I started blogging

I briefly touched on this in this post. In all honesty, when I first made my blog I hardly knew anything about blogging, I'd watch a few vloggers when I was younger (Charlieissocoollike, Amazingphil, Danisnotonfire, JennaMarbles) But I hadn't really come across any blogs, I didn't know how people found them, how you followed them and had no idea of the community I was stepping into.

What I wanted was a chance to write, publically. I've always loved writing, I've been shy about it, I've thrown things away that I've written but I've always loved doing it. My thought of going into journalism was really blossoming and this felt like the only logical next step. 

Starting Blogging

So low and behold I created a blog and started to write. I shared it on both Facebook and Twitter and was surprised to see people actually viewing the pages. I posted 48 times in 2014, 17 times in 2015 and 34 times so far this year.

I somehow came across a couple of other blogs through googling and quickly found out about Bloglovin. This gave me the opportunity to really see other blogs, and have a feed to look at and people other than my family and friends to see my posts.

Learning more 

Blogging turned out to be so much bigger than I had ever realised, last year I decided to make a Twitter page specifically for my blog, giving me the chance to follow other bloggers, for them to follow me and for us to interact a lot. I have taken part in Twitter chats and spoken to many people, I'm learning more about promoting my blog, writing and taking pictures.

My worst part of blogging was finding about the view count. Thinking I was doing quite well looking at my blogger view counts and then reading a post about how inaccurate they are. I signed up for Google Analytics and found much more honest page views, that was hugely disappointing. I'd advise any starting out blogger to look at that first before believing your blogger statistics.

Improving

This year I've already hit a few of my blogging goals, I've hit my end of year target for my page views (the fake blogger number), numbers of posts, numbers of tweets and twitter followers. And each time I try and give myself the next mini goal.

Blogging is something I really enjoy, and most of the things I learn make me enjoy it more, just not that fake page views number! 

Do you give yourself blogging goals? When did you find out about the difference between blogger views and Google analytics?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx  


 

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