This is the time of the season that we reflect on the year we had and evaluate our growth and what we have to be grateful for. It’s a beautiful time of appreciating our journey and experiences, and a time of challenging ourselves to grow and live better in the upcoming year. People share in this widespread tradition of reflection/motivation and are brought together over the hope for the new year.

For Slanted Spines, it has been an incredible year. This website has come so far in twelve months, and I want to highlight its progress so that you, my readers, may reflect with me and feel proud that you have helped make this journey with Slanted Spines possible.

Milestones for 2018!

• Slanted Spines became its own domain, evolving from slantedspines.wordpress.com to slantedspines.com!
• Throughout the year, I ordered three different sets of business cards advertising the website and they were distributed them from the west coast to the east coast, from Colorado to Washington, D.C., to Virginia and Wisconsin. Thank you so much to my readers who have helped promote the website!
• With Bryant’s sponsorship, earlier this year I acquired a tablet which allowed me to begin digitally creating art for my website and illustrating with more convenience.
• Every blog post now has a customized header image. At the start of the year, it was solely text, but in an effort to make my blog more eye-catching, I began designing them.
• Slanted Spines got merchandise this year! Stickers, magnets, bumper stickers, bookmarks, clothing, and more! Some of the merchandise I ordered and distributed, while other merchandise is available directly for purchase. This was a monumental step forward for my blog, and the support I received from this was amazing.
• Previously, Slanted Spines was just a WordPress blog, but now it has its own social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook, which you can follow and like to keep up with Slanted Spines.
• N.T. Ed, who has become the sort of “mascot” of the website, was created this year, and has given much guidance to the “look” of Slanted Spines and its contents. The theme of the website has become more specific and centered around N.T. Ed.
• I began writing blog posts that focus on self-growth and emotional health, which is a reflection of the personal developments I’ve had this year.

Thank you endlessly to my readers and supporters. Slanted Spines has been a personal project for three years now, and in many cases it’s what’s kept me going during “bad” weeks. Sometimes it is difficult to find time to write, and other times I’m so excited about what I’ve created for my readers, and I feel blessed that Slanted Spines has shaped into a peaceful, sacred place of fun stories, contemplating life’s complexity, and getting to know ourselves better.

During this time, I’m doing a lot of reflecting on the website and the direction I want it to take, so stay tuned with me to see where our journey goes next. And again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Have a blessed new year!