Here's To One Year

One year ago today, I sat down to write my very first blog post on Live The Prep Life. Here I am, a year later, and I can't believe how far I've come. I can't believe I've managed to stick with this and am still writing. I can't believe everything that's happened in the past year.

When I started this blog, I knew it would be a fun hobby, but I never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that it would leave such a big impact on my life, but it did. Blogging completely changed my life. It let me be grateful for so many things and allowed me to really appreciate who I am. It's opened so many doors for me, and I can't believe how much it's changed my life.

So thank you. Thank you for the most amazing year possible. Thank you to each and every one of you.

These are two of my best friends... check out Sarah's preppy Instagram and Ashley's food blog

Thank you to my in-real-life friends for always liking every single picture I post on Instagram and always giving me inspiration. Yesterday was National Best Friends Day, and I told y'all yesterday, but I'll say it again - I couldn't ask for better friends. Y'all enter every giveaway I host at least five million times and are stalking my Instagram 24/7. The latter may be kind of creepy... but I still love y'all and I don't know what I would do without y'all.

And then there's the trillions of amazing bloggers that I've gotten to meet and work with. I've done some pretty fun collabs with Michaela, Brooke, Rebecca, and Ashlee - as well as guest posting on Kay's blog. Thank you to Cathleen, Rachel, Cristina, Nicole, and Olivia, for hosting some amazing link-ups that have allowed me to meet so many more bloggers and really helped me grow my blog. Thank you to my snail mail friends: Samantha and Katie, because I'm always able to talk to y'all about everything and y'all just get what it's like to be a blogger.

I jump for joy a lot...

Thank you to all the amazing brands I've gotten to work with! I could name all of them, but that would take forever. If you want to see some of the companies, check out my discount codes page. I've also featured several companies on posts like May Favorites, She is Quick & Curious & Playful & Strong, Spring With Warby Parker, as well as doing several giveaways on Instagram. I've loved getting to work with y'all and grow my blog because of the collaborations we've been able to do.

I know I'm not a big blogger. I know my growth has been pretty slow compared to other bloggers, but I'm proud of how I've managed to balance blogging with school and extracurricular activities. I'm proud of how much I was able to figure out about SEO, HTML, working with other people, structuring posts, promoting posts, and so much more. I've learned so much in this past year that I could probably write a novel. If you don't believe me, check out this post that I wrote almost a year ago. I haven't gone back and edited it, and it's quite embarrassing. While I've rewritten some of my other posts, I think I'll leave that one just the way it is so I can always look back and remember where I started.

I could ramble forever, but this post is already becoming a long one, so I'll wrap it up with one last thank you. Thank you to everyone who has supported my blog in any way possible. If you've been here since the beginning, or you just clicked on a Pin or Tweet and found your way here - thank you. I couldn't have accomplished everything that I've managed to accomplish without every single one of you.

I thought a few fireworks were appropriate for this post

So, here's to another year. Here's to more late nights of blogging, more photo shoots with my little sister, more analyzing blog stats and reading endless tips on how to grow my Instagram, more collaborations, more opportunities, but most importantly, more days of getting to do what I love. Blogging may be hard work, but trust me, it's worth it, and I wouldn't change a thing.