5 Year Blogiversary: A Thank You & Q&A Part 1

Well, the big day’s here…

I genuinely cannot believe I’m saying this, but today, my blog officially turns 5 years old. It’s been 5 whole years of nurturing and tending to this little blog (and leaving it to wither for a few months, sometimes) and sticking by it. And now I’m going into my 6th year of blogging? Truly unreal…

As always, I’m doing a Q&A to celebrate. But you get a monster of a post this time around, because I have a long sentimental ramble to dump on you because it’s 5 years and I think that’s an extra special number! (Also if you want to ask any more questions, leave them in a comment or here.)

I started my blog when I was young, so when I say that blogging has been formative for me, I really do mean it. I’ve matured so much over the last 5 years (and you can definitely see it in how my online presence has changed…), but I’ve just grown as a person in general, alongside my little blog. And I just can’t believe that this blog has been a part of my life for so long? Long enough that my blog is of the age of an American kindergarten student?

I truly can’t imagine my life without my blog. It’s not that I think I’ll blog forever—I just can’t imagine how different things would look for me today if I hadn’t created this website. It has become such a special place for expressing myself, connecting with others, and finding my voice. Blogging has made so many paths for me, whether it was just being on the internet more or improving my communication skills, and it’s strange to think that I might have never found these paths had it not been for 2017 baby me opening up WordPress.

Thanks to blogging, I’ve met so many people and made wonderful friends who I’ve become immeasurably close to. There are people I met all the way back in 2017 who I still talk to today, and people I met in 2021 and have had the pleasure of becoming fast friends with them. Especially now, the connections I’ve cultivated within this community is 100% the best result of my blogging. It is so lovely to be able to connect with people behind the screen on a deep level, and know that they care about me too.

I don’t think 2017 May would’ve imagined having this many people reading their blog and actually caring to read their giant monster posts (this one being a very good example). And there’s really nothing I can say that could encompass my gratitude, but: thank you. For all your continuous support, for your confidence in me, for your book recommendations and your kind encouragement and your thoughtful comments. It has always meant the world, and I am so happy to be here still, because of you.

Okay… enough SAP!! I am feeling all ICKY and WEIRD, this sentimentality is very abnormal for me!!! Anyway, last but not least, I always offer a feedback survey each year for you to fill out—a few minutes max! It’s to help me provide better content and implement things that you want to see from me, because you’ve all done so much for me that I want to make sure I’m providing for you, too! Thank you in advance to those who fill it out <33

THE BLOG

I accomplished some really cool things over the past year, such as surpassing 300,000 total views and hitting & surpassing 100,000 views in one year for the first time ever! (Mostly thanks to one post continually receiving thousands of views each month lmao…) Unfortunately, I didn’t post nearly as much as I was hoping to—the last year was definitely my worst in terms of being active, and the amount of posts I published decreased significantly.

But! I’m trying not to feel too bad about it, because life happens! And especially with COVID still going on, I just have to take it one day at a time. All this does, though, is make me feel even more grateful to you all, for sticking with me even when I may drop off the face of earth without a word sometimes. So again, from the bottom of my heart: thank you, thank you, thank you, for sticking with me and being the reason I come back.

FAVORITE POSTS FROM THE PAST YEAR

 
 

Q&A

BOOKS / MEDIA

who are the blogger friends you feel like their reading aligns the best with yours?

I love this question so much… I think that Skye and Rain are the first people that come to mind recently! I regularly share the same book opinions with them, and I have complete trust in their recommendations to me. (And I know the question’s about reading, but it extends to other media too, like anime!)

who are your favorite youtubers?

I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube lately but I don’t really have any favorite Youtubers? But some channels I’ve been enjoying are AmandaRachLee, nisufilm, twirlingpages, and Alex on the Block!

 2021 releases you didn’t get to, but hope to read?

     

3 books I got for Christmas: Light From Uncommon Stars, To Break a Covenant, and A Dowry of Blood! And also the sequel to one of my favorite YA fantasies: Redemptor! I’m fairly confident I’m going to love all of these, so I really hope I can read them this year.

 what book would you say is formative to you?

Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman is a deeply important book to me. I’ve talked about it before on my blog, but it helped me realized a lot of things about myself re: internalized racism. I’ve always thought that books can influences people’s lives, but the reason I so strongly believe in the ability of books to change a fundamental part of someone’s life is because of what Starfish did for me.

 how excited are you for Ms. Kuang’s Babel

Very excited!! If she disappoints me with it I think I will have to dig myself into a hole and never feel the shining rays of sunlight ever again, but I KNOW she will not miss!!!

 who are your go-to authors?

Anna-Marie McLemore and K Ancrum! I’ve read at least 3 of each of their books and adored them all. RF Kuang and Kelly Loy Gilbert are climbing up there, but I’d like to read one more book from each of them before declaring them a go-to!

 what are some of your comfort books?

     

The PJO books of course, especially The Lightning Thief, but also Foolish Hearts, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and A Wish in the Dark!

 what are some of your favourite ships, from books or elsewhere?

I think as I’ve grown, I’ve stopped fixating on fictional relationships as much… I still love reading/watching them but I definitely had to think for a long time to answer this! But I’ll have to say Percy/Annabeth of course……… and I’m still obsessed with Rin/Nezha but less in a “ship” way and more in terms of their general dynamic! As for TV, Chidi/Eleanor always make me want to cry and I also like Bokuto/Akaashi………….. ok this is embarrassing NO MORE!!!

 favorite tv shows and movies?

I’ve been so bad about watching lots of shows and movies lately… but for shows I’d have to say The Good Place, Criminal Minds, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Haikyuu, and most recently Bungou Stray Dogs! I’m even worse about watching movies, but Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and Moonlight will always hold special pieces of my heart.

 share your spotify wrapped 👀

I unfortunately did not save my Spotify Wrapped images so I cannot share them… But here are my top genres! And I remember that my top 3 artists were Cage the Elephant, The Neighbourhood, and Mother Mother, and my top song was Devil’s Advocate by The Neighbourhood.

BLOGGING

what inspired your blog name?

I am so sorry to disappoint, but there is no deeper meaning behind my blog name. The “everly” part is from the silly and terrible alias I came up with for myself when I was Young and Embarrassing (”May Everly”). So I guess I just liked the phrase “forever and ever” and then modified it? What was I thinking! I have no idea!!!

I’ve actually been wanting to change it but unfortunately the lack of skill in coming up with good names has persisted throughout the years…

how do you choose which book to post a review of (other than ARCs, blog tours, and ads)?

On my blog, I haven’t posted many book reviews that aren’t for ARCs. While I love writing book reviews, my full ones (the only reviews I’d post on my blog) take me forever, and usually I only have time to write them for ARCs because I’m required to review those!

When it comes to choosing which reviews to write in general, instead of which to post, then it’s the books that I want to talk about! I also feel more obligated to write more thought-out reviews for books that are more popular? Because I feel like people care more about those books and would actually want to read my thoughts on them, versus some lesser-known books that people wouldn’t care about and therefore wouldn’t care about my opinions on them.

if you were to blog about something other than books, what would it be?

Oh, I don’t know! I love dance, but writing about it on a blog wouldn’t make sense to me. I unfortunately don’t do enough creative writing to be able to blog about it… Maybe lifestyle content? But even then, 1) I don’t do anything that interesting, and 2) it would probably be better on Youtube than a blog! 

what’s your favorite post you’ve done or one you’re most proud of??

 

Let’s do two! I love my QPOC YA recommendations post, even though I really wanted to add more to/update it and I haven’t been able to. And recently, I loved my post about my reading mindset simply because what I discussed just makes me happy!

LIFE / MISCELLANEOUS

includes discussion & pictures of food

what tools/apps do you use to learn Thai?

I want to find an app that I can use daily, but so far nothing I’ve tried has worked well for me! I used ThaiPod 101 to start off learning the alphabet, and I probably will sign up for a free trial again to learn some of the harder grammar stuff. But mostly I’ve been just googling things… It’s fine because I know what I need to study from already knowing basic Thai words and grammar, but when I move past the stuff I’m familiar with, I’m going to need more structured lessons!

 do you think our shared inability to go to bed on time is a sign of a vampiric infection (follow up: are you still keeping vampiric sleeping habits)

Yes, absolutely. (To both questions. Someone help us both acquire non-vampiric sleeping habits.)

what’s your favorite font?

I’ve loved writing in Spectral for a long time, but IM Fell Double Pica is another favorite! (It feels so fancy for some reason!)

what are your fav Thai dish(es)?

   
L to R: moo ping, khanom chan, pad see ew

• Comfort food: kai jeow moo sap (omelette with ground pork fried Thai style)
• Street food: moo ping (grilled pork skewers) with sticky rice & bahmee nam moo daeng (ramen-like noodles with red pork)
• Dessert: khanom chan (jelly-ish layered dessert) & bua loi phuak (taro balls in coconut milk)
• Other: pla krapong tod nam pla (fried fish with fish sauce) & lots of noodles in general (lad na, pad see ew, gang jued woon sen)

 what are your best tips for/how are you getting through college apps?

I am so sorry if the person asking this has deadlines that already passed! Honestly I struggled really badly with my college apps, so I’m not the best person to turn to for advice. I procrastinated my essays terribly, so don’t do that!!! I had a hard time thinking of what to write about—but something that helped me was brain-dumping on paper! Not doing it on the laptop relieved a lot of the pressure to get everything right from the get-go.

 what are your best tips for writing good essays/doing standout extracurriculars?

I really am not a good person to ask for college advice from >< The college app process brought me a lot of anxiety so it’s not fun for me to think back on. I also just don’t have a lot of confidence in what I submitted, so I don’t think I can give good tips at all.

Overall, I just focused on making my essays as personal and specific as possible, brainstormed and worked with a lot of topics, and wrote and rewrote!

fav cuisine after Thai?

I usually only stick to Thai food or typical American food… But I guess in non-pandemic times, I do eat a decent amount of Tex-Mex and I love it! (For non-Americans, Tex-Mex is like a fusion of American and Mexican cuisines, and it’s very popular in Texas.)

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if you read this entire post, you are now my favorite person. do you have any good language learning tools? what are YOUR favorite movies? (i need recs!) THANK YOU ALL AGAIN I cherish you very much <3