A Year In Review of Twenty Nineteen

December 31, 2019

I must say that it was a bit emotional for me to write this post. Do you guys realize that this is the very last blog post of the decade? It’s hard to believe! Many great things came out of this decade from starting this blog to graduating from college. Also I’ve met amazing people along the way and some I became really good friends with. Others that I’ve been friends with for a long time didn’t quite make the cut if you know what I mean. The 2010’s was definitely an interesting rollercoaster ride for me, but the most important of all, there were so many lessons learned.

If I could summarize this decade in one word, it would be grateful. I’m grateful for my experiences, the people I’ve met along this journey and just the opportunity to build memories. Hopefully my children will someday stumble across this blog post to get a brief picture of my feelings of what this decade was like for me.

Ending the year with 2019 being a great year to end out the decade. In 2019, I highlighted several things things that happened…

Just a few highlights…

Settling into a reputable company. If it’s anyone that had their fair share of working for crappy companies in the past, it was definitely me! This year, I was able to become comfortable and settle in with a pretty good company that is known as being reputable. One that offers an excellent salary and benefits, which is a step up for me.
Got accepted into RewardStyle. Have you heard of RewardStyle? If you’re a blogger, you may have heard of it. RewardStyle is basically an exclusive affiliate program by invitation only where I get to make profit mainly through my instagram. It’s an awesome program to make it a little profit on the side. RewardStyle is very selective of who gets invited. It took me almost a year to get in but I finally made it.
Finally upgraded the blog. If you have been keeping up with me since day one, you may have noticed a bit of a change to the Kiki Style Diary website. Yessssssss I finally stepped up my game and took my blog to the next level. I love it for the simple fact that it’s more user friendly with a clean presentable representation.

What lessons have I’ve learned in 2019…

I learned the importance of having patience. I must admit, the more I get older, the less patience I have. The nature of what I do at work is having patience, especially for human beings. We live in such a fast-paced society that we are conditioned for fast instant results. I basically learned to just be mindful depending on the scenario.
The importance of money management. I must say that I’m very proud of myself because I have learned how to manage my money better than I use to. Especially now that I’m paying back these student loans and paying a house mortgage. I’m learning the importance of saving.
The importance of self-care. In this stressful world we live in, I learned that self-care mentally and spirituality is so important. It’s quite easy to get caught up in the problems in society. Any personal time I had to myself, I would take advantage of it by listening to music (smooth jazz preferably) and engaging in spa facials.

What I look forward to in 2020…

Going back to grad school possibly. So this is not a definite decision, but if I do decide to make this move, I would go back to study journalism. During the past summer, I’ve been researching and talking with people I personally know that’s already in the industry to give me a sense of direction.
Market myself a bit more than usual. As much as I love writing for my personal blog, I want to also contribute my writing to build up my portfolio. I would love to write for a fashion columns in the Huffington Post or The New York Times Style. It would also be so cool to get featured in these columns as well.
Traveling to Italy. I’ve been keeping this secret for so long and the time is finally here. I can’t tell you that I’m finally escaping to paradise so stay tuned!