2011 Introspection

It's past midnight where I am (happy new year!) but not where most of you are, so I wipe a metaphorical bead of sweat off my forehead for a post written still in time. I don't have a well-edited list of favorites and hesitate to make resolutions, so some candid reflections about the past year shall do.

The best thing to happen to me in 2011 was stumbling upon direction. I've been told once: dreams are not thought out, they are found, which I never understood when I was younger. After all, at seventeen when I was told I had the world in my fingertips, the endless choice felt like I could do everything and nothing at all. What if what I studied in college had nothing to do with what I wanted to do later? I used to be afraid of going into the workforce because I saw a bleak future out of school, thinking of work as the dreary everyday slaving to pay bills. My boyfriend knew what he wanted to pursue since he was five, and while every step of the way for him was one step closer to his dream, I was the blindfolded other half groping for nothing.

If you've been with me from the start, you'll know that I interned at BeautyBlitz.com in summer, an experience invaluable in so many ways I can never repay my debt to the lovely team for giving me a chance when no one else did. It was because of those three months that I could conceive of beauty writing as a "real job," and found out just how much I loved doing it. It is also because of Beauty Blitz that I have the internship beyond my wildest dreams lined up for Spring 2012.

During that summer I also shed my hesitant self and started tweeting the beauty gurus I admire (and received replies!), which led me to creating Messy Wands. In September, Messy Wands was nominated for "Best Beauty Voice" at Lucky Magazine's Fashion And Beauty Bloggers (FABB) Conference Awards. A month later, I was offered the opportunity to meet Essie Weingarten. But the best thing about starting Messy Wands is getting to befriend other beauty bloggers, the high point of which was being invited to be a part of a band of bandits.

And then, there's all you lovely readers. Many a comment has made my day, and there have been a lot of days made. For all your comments and support and emails and just being so incredibly nice to me, thank you thank you thank you. I can only hope you've found Messy Wands helpful enough to repay the kindness you've shown to me.

2011 has been a fantastic year. I think it is one I'll look back upon later in life and say, "that's when I got it." For 2012 I'm going to work smarter, laugh harder, and love better.

Happy New Year to all you lovelies! May you find your dream and/or have a dream come true.