Happy November, writers!

It's the first of the month...wake up, wake up, wake up! (Corny, I know.)

Anyway...

I'm excited because today is not just the first of any month, but it's the first of November...THEE month for writers!

For those who are not familiar, November is "National Novel Writing Month," also known as "NaNoWriMo." This is the month that a lot of writers were/are born. This is the month filled with tons of online writing encouragement and advice from other writers, novelists, etc. This is the month that I got serious about writing my first book, SoKoDiaries: An American Teacher Living in South Korea. (Although I didn't publish my first book until February 2013, it was mostly written in November 2012 while I was overseas in South Korea.) So much literary magic has happened since then!

Happy New Year! (I hope I'm not too late with the well wishes.)

For the past two years, I've written annual blog diaries to highlight some cool, noteworthy things I’ve done throughout the year to help me be more grateful for my life. These annual blog diaries also include documented moments of growth in my business. This may sound like a weird, vain, or possibly silly concept, but it has worked for me in the past. Although I will no longer document accomplishments in this way, my annual blog diaries helped me learn the importance of gratitude. The simple things in life really do matter. (NOTE: I deleted a lot of info because I felt it wasn’t for the public.) Nevertheless, these notes are still pretty transparent.

Happy New Year!

2016 has been amazing for me, thus far. Hopefully, you guys have the same testimony. Instead of me talking about how grateful I am for another year, I'm gonna follow the same new year process I started last year where I list highlights of the previous year--broken down into months--showcasing the new and/or exciting things I've accomplished and learned.

click here to read my 2014 diary, otherwise, continue reading:

JANUARY

-Released my first short story fiction on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday (although Amazon says a different date)

-Visited the eatery "Lemonade " in Manhattan Beach and fell in love with it

Below are a few things I picked up along the way in these 30 short years of my life:

1. Although I've been out of grade school for years, I still want to go school shopping every Fall
2. Confidence will sort of just come out of nowhere
3. You'll care about people's opinions less, however, people's opinions will still hold some weight
4. You'll get along with your parents more because you will understand them more
5. You'll realize that your parents put up with your attitude (as a child) far too long
6.  You'll start to say things like, “I remember when…”, and “when I was your age…”
7. You'll despise current music and have an iTunes/Google Play/Amazon library that is filled with music from the 90s and early 00s

Happy New Year, good people!

What better way to bring in 2015 than to reflect on 2014?! Well, that's what this blog post is about. It is the highlights, if you will, of last year.

In 2014, I started a personal campaign diary and wrote down all of the new, exciting, and abnormal things that I've done (accomplished). This list remained as an email draft until today, and it was the first time I read it over. It was interesting to read fragments of my life in a year. All in all, I thank God for the highs and lows of twenty fourteen--they were all worth it! I hope you enjoy my journey. I'm thinking of continuing this diary theme throughout 2015.

What do you think?

A few days ago, I received a nomination for my first ever blog award by the beautiful Helen from the "blue eyed beauty blog." I was very excited and honored and a little shocked that people outside of my family read my blog. Ha! Anyway, thank you so much, Helen. I can barely contain myself as I am writing this blog post. Okay, let me give the background on this award, etc.

Do you know the difference between fear and faith?

One of my business partners broke it down so simply, and I had to share. He said,

"Faith builds and fear tears down!"

Wow, how powerful!