Reflecting on 2018!!

Hey guys! I can’t believe that I’m writing this post – it only seems like 5 minutes ago that I was reflecting on 2017! This year has been amazing and I’ve loved blogging throughout it. Thank you so much for your support throughout the year, I’m so blessed to have such incredible followers. It seems crazy to me as well that I’ve nearly been blogging for 2 years! Where has the time gone? In today’s post, I will be reviewing my stats, my favourite posts and Hull events of this year and my highlights of 2018!

MY STATS

So I’m fairly happy with my stats this year overall. My goal last year was to not obsess over my stats and I feel I’ve achieved that due to being busier this year and not having the time to obsess over them. So this year, I had 10,306 views, 3,668 visitors, 2,489 likes, 1,227 comments and 677 followers. They’ve increased since last year and I feel that I couldn’t have asked for more than that. I did notice that my stats decreased over the course of the year but I think part of the problem was that I wasn’t seeking to discover as many new blogs as I had last year and some of the blogs I followed became dormant which naturally may effect the amount of likes and comments you receive on your posts. I always feel satisfied if my posts reach 30 likes or more and in terms of comments, I don’t mind whether I get 2 or 30 plus because I love talking to you all about my posts. My top commenters are Hannah, Charley, Azra, Jamie, Mia and Pamela. Thank you so much to you guys for consistently commenting on my blog! Your support means a lot to me. Please go and check out all of their blogs and show them some love! My most viewed and liked post of this year was Banksy in Hull but my most commented on post this year was Interviewing my 100 year old Great Nan. The comments on that post really warmed my heart and it makes me so happy that you all loved my Great Nan as much as I do! So overall, my stats were pretty good this year and my goal for 2019 is for them to increase by as much as possible.

MY FAVOURITE POSTS OF 2018

I’m sure I already said this last year but it was incredibly hard to choose only a few favourite posts as I love them all for different reasons. But here are my favourite posts of 2018:

Banksy in Hull! – I loved analysing Banksy’s work in Hull which appeared back in January and exploring his possible reasons for producing the art work in Hull and the suggested hidden meanings behind it.

AG and Family series: Great Nan and Dad – I ventured into some more personal blogging this year with my AG and Family series and it was so interesting to interview both my Dad and my Great Nan. I can’t wait to interview more of my family members. Let me know in the comments who you want me to interview next!

Big Malarkey Festival – This post took me ages to write and I wanted to make sure it was of the best quality since I’d been asked by Laura Beddows to review the events that were happening for teens at the Big Malarkey Festival. That was one of the best weekends of this year and as a result, I produced a post that I was so proud of.

Canada Diaries: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 – I love writing my travel posts and the Canada Diaries were no exception. It was a great way for me to relive one of my favourite holidays and explore some of the amazing places we visited again.

My experience as a Pigzine reporter – I was extremely lucky this year to be offered the opportunity to become a young reporter for global magazine Pigzine over the weekend of the Freedom Festival. A massive thank you to Laura, Josie, Natasha and all of the team at Kaleider for that weekend. In this post, I described my experience of being a Pigzine reporter and the controversy that surrounded ‘Pig’, the art sculpture we were reporting on. I’d highly recommend reading my post or clicking on the Pigzine website if you want to find out more.

Fagin’s Twist Performance – This has to be one of my all time favourite events. Because I loved the event so much, writing the review on it was so easy and I produced yet another piece of writing that I was so proud of.

MY FAVOURITE EVENTS OF 2018

Where do we go from here? – This event was the perfect way to kickstart 2018. The installations used in this event were incredibly unique and it was so interesting to watch overall.

Driftwood – This was an amazing ‘Back to Ours’ event with awesome acrobatics and daring tricks. A simple storyline was conveyed throughout too without any words used.

Big Malarkey Festival – Although most of my time was concentrated on trying out all of the events for teens at the Festival, it was still an amazing weekend where I met some amazing people from the literary world and got to try out some awesome activities.

Dominoes – This event was off the charts in terms of uniqueness. A trail of dominoes around the city leading to some spectacular sculptures, created entirely from dominoes, was an amazing event to experience on a pleasant summer afternoon.

Freedom Festival – how could I not include this event? Back for the 11th year, the Freedom Festival hosts a wide range of acts and events over the course of the first weekend of September and every year, it’s bigger and better than before.

Fagin’s Twist – I can’t even describe how much I loved this event. The dancing, storytelling and acting was incredible and I really wish that I could watch it all over again!

Urban Legends: Northern Lights – This event was the perfect way to end the year. Six unique light displays were dotted around Hull city centre and each one was entertaining and special in its own way.

MY HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018

I’m lucky enough to have a plethora of highlights of 2018. I’ve enjoyed spending time with family and friends, particularly celebrating their birthdays with them and having family get togethers. I’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible people in my life this year so thank you to my amazing family and friends for putting up with me this year and being there for me. I’ve experienced some amazing holidays in Liverpool, Canada and most recently London and I’ve experienced some amazing events this year which I’ve shared with you all on my blog. I had an incredible birthday this year as I travelled up to Meadowhall, a massive indoor shopping centre, for the day with my parents, my sister Eloise and my best friend Lydia. We met up with my grandparents for tea and me and Lydia enjoyed a fun sleepover. I’ve continued to play flute and piano over the course of this year and I’m currently working towards grade 6 flute and grade 4 piano. On a sadder note, my rabbit Flopsey unfortunately died in March this year and I still miss her now but it did bring me closer to my other rabbit Muffin and caused me to appreciate him more. I also had some work linking to my blog this year such as working as the official blogger for the Blundabus at the Big Malarkey Festival and becoming a reporter for Pigzine at the Freedom Festival and I’m really grateful for both of these opportunities. One of the most important moments of this year would have to be when I was baptised. It was one of the happiest days of my life when I made a public commitment to the Lord and I was so jubilant and thankful that so many of my family and friends came to support me on that special day.

2018 has truly been an amazing year. Again, I’m shocked but gratified about how much I’ve achieved this year and all of the amazing experiences I’ve had. I’m so sad that 2018 is coming to a close but I can’t wait to see what 2019 will bring. Thank you so much to all of my followers for your continued support of my blog this year. It truly means the world to me. My hopes for 2019 are that my blog will continue to thrive and develop and that I will continue to grow as a person. I hope you have an incredible 2019!!

There’ll be another post out soon but until then bye for now!

Amelia Grace a.k.a Amelia in Hull

Follow me: Pinterest ● Twitter ● Facebook