Sarah at NerdyWordyBirdy borrowed this from someone named Lauren and now I wanna do it too. I refuse to link to my old sites or posts because nobody needs that much cringe in their life.

2010

This was the year I tried contacts, I think? Maybe? Which I’d completely blocked from memory. Braces, too (those I remembered). Toward the end of this year, my family moved from Okinawa, Japan, to the States, specifically Georgia. I vividly remember sitting in the back of the car in Indiana, staring at how big and spacious the countryside looked along the highways. I’d spent three years used to life with tight urban Japanese architecture shoved up against wild jungle greenery. Once in the U.S., I started my first ever blog, Struggles of a (Maybe) Teen Author, and the manuscript that would eventually become Sixteen. I was obsessed with fun socks and Christmas.

2011

I started reviewing books on my blog and writing what would become World of Shadows. Homeschooling Teen gave me a book review column in their e-publication. I started dating my first boyfriend and discovered the works of Cidney Swanson. The NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program pulled me in. I hosted my first of three annual blog parties, a major event during which I’d post every day from Dec. 11 (date I started my blog) through Jan. 15 (my birthday) with guest posts, interviews, and giveaways. My family adopted a second cat. I made and posted my first bucket list. Also, I was super pro-life/anti-abortion, so that’s… weird to read now.

2012

Sixteen received its (and my) first rejection letter. Also, I turned sixteen, with an Alice in Wonderland party. I discovered the Hunger Games series and went on a teen missions trip to Dominica, a tropical island nation south of Antigua/southeast of Bahamas and Cuba with black volcanic sand beaches. Following a creative writing prompt, I wrote my first fanfiction — an Ever After-based story on “what if Cinderella’s slipper fit one of the evil stepsisters?” I reworked World of Shadows for NaNoWriMo (2012’s 40K was the closest I’ve come to winning so far).

2013

Briefly enjoyed a second set of ear piercings before they got infected (I eventually let them heal shut.) I re-branded my blog to the original Emily Rachelle Writes on Blogger. We discovered my heart condition, PSVT or paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and I had surgery to correct it. I served as an INSPY Award judge for the YA category. My first dating relationship ended, and I got a pixie cut. Heart Torn in Two, my Suspian fanfiction that still isn’t finished, began. My cat got cancer and had to be put down at five years old, so that really sucked. I started my first “real-world job” at Chick-Fil-A, and won tickets through a radio contest to attend a local writers’ conference.

2014

Sixteen, my debut Christian YA novella set in the 90s, released. I took it out of print recently, but might edit and re-release one day. I graduated high school and started college with an elementary education major at Taylor University, which was my first time actually living in Indiana. I tried to crowdfund my next book’s publication on Inkshares and got nowhere with that. I discovered and subsequently battled the discovery of my bisexuality. This was my first year in counseling too. Then I got sick. Really sick.

2015

Oh the angst of 2015… My second semester of college became a semester of medical leave at home. I published a book of poetry that is no longer and will never be in print again (the cringe). I dated my second “boyfriend,” a two-month online relationship with a writer friend from high school who turned out to be a terrible narcissist. Once I started taking Lamictal, I was better-ish. Enough to return to school, this time as a journalism major. I kept going to counseling, resumed studying sexuality and theology, and first experienced Twilight. That was fun.

2016

I came out publicly as bisexual and hosted a popular blog series of my queer Christian friends’ stories. I met my first girlfriend. I worked my first internship at an immigrant outreach nonprofit in Indianapolis. My major switched from journalism to public relations, since I thought that would be more marketable on paper (turns out nope). I published World of Shadows, which is still available on Amazon.

2017

I found my second internship at a hospice nonprofit in Georgia. This year is a blur looking back now, which sounds about right for someone with chronic illnesses getting into upper-level major courses in college and also planning a wedding. Yeah, girlfriend and I got engaged that year. I didn’t blog as much at this point, and it’s all kinda fuzzy.

2018

This year began with my beautiful discovery of Tahereh Mafi and the Shatter Me series. I got my first tattoo, a collection of references to Jane Eyre, The Hunger Games, and The Ordinary Princess. In a short span, I received more oh-so-fun health news, graduated college, called off the wedding, and (by just kind of never returning) shut down my blog. Fast forward a bit to a new relationship, my first post-college job as a newspaper journalist, my first apartment, and whaddaya know, my second breakup in a year.

2019

I started a new writing project, in which I’m currently knee-deep. NaNoWriMo helped me make some good progress on that front. In a rapid series of crazy stuff, I fell in love (yeah, again!), quit my newspaper job, and moved towns/cities. I worked at Kroger for a few months before quitting there too. Now I’m living with my boyfriend and our new little buddy, with a lot of big plans for the upcoming year.

I’m still obsessed with Christmas.

2020?

There’s still a few items from the original 2011 bucket list to check off in the new decade: look through a telescope, learn sign language, visit Greece (and a bunch of other places), meet Shannon Hale (if I’m lucky). I have several writing projects in mind as well.

Stay tuned for another post sometime this month, when I’ll talk more about my plans for the new year and decade.

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