1st anniversary, 60 blog posts 1,100+ comments, a multitude of support flowing  and a MASSIVE thanks to you, you’re amazing! Today, 21st of June 2022 marks one one year anniversary day of Kat&Beyond. I cannot believe its already been a year and how much this blog has grown. In spite of me being inconsistent the past few months, non of this will be possible without your support. Not just here but also on Facebook, Instagram heck even on Tiktok!

The past few months have been a crazy roller coaster ride – a ride that I actually enjoyed. To celebrate my first year as a blogger, you may send your gifts to…. just kidding! 🥰

I want to share a bit of a background, memories, lessons and some unsolicited thoughts I’ve had so far.

A Wee Bit of a Background & Memories

I’ve always wanted a website of my own. In fact, this is not my first blog. I started way way back 2005 which I also built from scratch. The moment I started making it work, I immediately fell in love with WordPress. Then, I told myself back then “I need to learn how everything works related to WordPress! this is the future.” Yeap, I wasn’t wrong.

You might be thinking that I am a programmer or something. Nope, not at all – just self-taught. In fact, my career path didn’t lead me there. I studied BSBA. Don’t get me wrong, I love studying Business Administration but part of me wished that I took Marketing instead. So, what did I do? I read tons of books! The learning curve ever ends and it was hard for me to find a creative outlet. My passion always resided in blogging. So, building a blog was the perfect solution to serve as my outlet.

My 2005 blog was a joke 🤪! I was young, had stupid friends who visits just to drop some nasty, inappropriate comments and often times meaningless. I didn’t have a niche (I doubt I knew what it means back then), my theme was way too colorful but hey! visitors from around the world are flowing back then. Mainly because WordPress and Blogging wasn’t so popular back then and having a website is actually something.

Then, 2020 the world stopped

People around the world are stuck at home due to pandemic and personally, I was starting to lose my mind. It was tough. I tried binge watching Netflix, reading and I even went back playing World of Warcraft but eventually, I got bored. So, to make the long story short – the pandemic gave me the idea of “why not start a blog again?!”.

The first few months it didn’t sink in to my mind and it was plainly just a thought. As months go by, each and everyday seems like shits are getting worst. People dying here and there, businesses are slowly shutting down, people around the world are simply struggling  physically, emotionally, mentally and financially.

My day to day experience was just awful during the pandemic days. Mid 2020, I told myself “ok! I need an outlet. I’m building a blog and start fresh.” took me months to come up with a perfect URL and I finally did! 21 JUL 2021, Kat&Beyond was launched.

Some Lessons Learned

I have so many things towards the 1st anniversary of Kat&Beyond. The first thing that I did is not to tell my friends. Well, I actually mentioned it to one of my closest friend and guess what I was told?! “sayang lang oras mo dyan” meaning, I am just going to waste my time.

From that moment, I decided to keep this to myself. If they stumble upon this blog or any of my social medias then, ok. If not, good! Plus, I don’t have time for them anyway – all the negative vibes and all… ugh! It’s pretty clear to me who will support my ideas but I also have few people on my list who can come up with possible reasons for me not to. At the end of the day, I love what I am doing and that’s all that matters.

Second, is to keep going and remove the comparison out of the equation and hard work is absolutely necessary! The first few months was really slow and being a blogger – growth doesn’t happen overnight and it varies based on the amount of work you put on. I learned this the hard way towards the 1st anniversary that I need to be more consistent, continue creating better content and write about topics that I truly believe in.

Lastly, keep making new connections with fellow bloggers whos just passionate as I am through the amazing communities that help build each other with unending support.

Many Thanks!

On this 1st anniversary day, I want to thank every single person who reads by blog – whether it’s one time or every single week. A huge thank you for taking time to look around and read more than just one post and last but not the least, thank you for the engagement and taking time to leave your comments.

I can’t wait to see what my next year blogging journey would hold. Focus on yourself, put 200% into anything and everything that you do and have faith that you can! Again, a million thanks! and thank you all for your support.