Posts Tagged: Blogging Celebration

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Rashika Turns 5

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I don’t mean so alarm anyone but I promise I am not actually a 5 year old waddling around in this community. Although, if I were, that would be pretty cool. I //have// however been blogging for five years which is wild. I really didn’t think I’d still be around??? But hey, this is a great way to reflect on my time within this community.

I’ve been blogging for a quarter of my life now. In the time I’ve been blogging, I graduated High School and I graduated College (Cum Laude ;)) Talking about books has always been an important part of who I am. In 7th grade, I got a bunch of people sitting at my desk hyped about The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. In 9th grade, I got all my friends reading and talking about the same books as me. In 10th grade, I even formed a Facebook group for a bunch of readers because I just wanted us to hang and talk about how amazing books are.

I joined Goodreads at 14 and used to be very very active within that community. I’d go on forums and talk about spoilers, love triangles sucking and other such stuff. In late 2012, a book pissed me off and I couldn’t find a single review that mirrored my feelings. I was angry at the book, angry at love triangles and angry about how one of my fav characters was treated. All the reviews were positive and I just needed to express my feelings so I wrote my first review ever that wasn’t mandated for class.

At this point, I had also actively started reading book blogs. Among my favorites were: The Midnight Garden, Cuddlebuggery, The Reader’s Den, Realm of Fiction, The Quiet Voice, Booksmugglers etc. So when I had to do a class assignment where I pretended to be a blogger, I pretended I was a book-blogger writing my first “I just started blogging.” I also recently dug that post up while putting this one together and the first line was “Being an angst full teenager…” ummmm cool, past Rashika. COOL.

After writing this fake blog post for an in-class assignment, I did a lot of stewing. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to start my own blog but also was terrified? Like what if no one gave a fuck? Putting myself out there has always been hard and doing it back in 2013 really involved taking a leap of faith. Luckily, I took that leap and here I am today.

In my 5 years of blogging, I’ve had the opportunity to blog by myself and with other people. I can for sure say I am co-blogging material and not blogging by myself material. These past 5 years have been full of so many highlights within blogging especially and I don’t think my fancy graphic covers them all but I AM GONNA TRY TO.

1. The First Time a Publicist Emailed Me

It wasn’t a review request but it was the first time a publicist ever acknowledged something I’d posted on my blog and that was WILD to me. It made me feel SO LEGITIMATE. Especially since I’d been blogging for like 3 months?

2. My First E-ARC/Physical Review Copy

These did not happen within the same time frame but like, the first e-arc I ever received was for The Nightmare Affair and the first physical review copy I ever received was for The Nightmare Dilemma, which was the sequel. Special shout-out to Tor for being so nice to baby Rashika.

3. Co-blogging

I am a co-blogger. I like humans and I don’t like having to manage a blog on my own. Just ask Giselle who I bug like every other day. SHE LOVES ME THOUGH. The first time I ever co-blogged, I created a new blog with Paulina. We met via email and it was such a cool experience to me. The second time I ever co-blogged was with Faye. I applied to be a co-blogger over at The Social Potato and she said YES! I was in class when I got her response but I still couldn’t help and squeal with delight.

4. Meeting my first blogger friend

Siiri was the first blogger friend I ever met. We spend an entire day bitching about people, eating good food, hanging at a bookstore and then finally, spending the evening at a concert. Siiri sure knows how to show a girl a good time. Siiri was and is one of my closest online friends and I will forever be thankful I got to meet her. HOPEFULLY IT’LL HAPPEN AGAIN because I love her cute face.

5. First BookExpo

In 2015, I really wanted to go to BookExpo. But, it didn’t look like it was gonna happen. I was sad and spend 4 hours crying in my room (not an exaggeration.) Giselle kept bugging me tho and seemed to really want me there so I GUESS I ENDED UP COMING. It was her 3rd or 4th BookExpo and my first so I basically followed her and Micheline around like a lost puppy. Micheline and I also gossiped about people in French which was fun….

6. First ALAMW

I WENT TO MY FIRST ALAMW last year and got to mark that milestone with some of my favs: Holly, Shannon and Val. I got to visit Atlanta for the first time too and fell immediately in love with the gorgeous city.

The Thank Yous

So there are a lot of people to thank and I am probably gonna miss someone so I’ll refrain from using names.

1. This is cliche but s/o to anyone who has ever commented or even read anything I’ve ever wrote. I blog for me but I also blog because I want to share my thoughts and feelings with someone. Putting myself out there is hard and I appreciate anyone who has ever taken the time to read something I’ve ever written.

2. My blogger friends. I LOVE YOU GUYS. I’ve made a lot of friends in my 5 years. You are all so valuable to me and I couldn’t do this without your constant encouragement and guidance.

3. Publicists & Marketing peeps. You guys do hard work and I am always excited when you think I can be part of ongoing promotions.

4. My computer. Thanks dude, I couldn’t do any of this without you.

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