We’ve come to the end of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I am simultaneously sad and relieved that it’s over. It’s happened so swiftly that there’s a part of me that can’t believe it’s already done.

I would like to thank all of you who chose to embark on this journey with me. Whether you read each post religiously or only when you felt like it, I don’t really care. The point is, you read, and for that I am grateful. To you, the reader, who engaged with the blog, asked questions for my Q&A, gave me topics to write about when I had writer’s block, or just sent me a message telling me to keep up the good work or to thank me for writing, thank you so very much for your engagement. I appreciate it. Thank you to anyone and everyone who liked, commented, shared, retweeted, or favourited any of my posts. Thank you for the support. I would also like to give special thanks and to wish an official Happy Birthday to Namafu who introduced me to this challenge and supported me every single day. Thank you Namafu, you’ve been my number one hype-woman throughout and I hope you have an incredible birthday!

This has probably been the most focused month of my year and I feel like a boss ass bitch for handling all life’s obligations plus blogging so well. This challenge has shown me that there’s no excuse for getting shit done. Stop thinking you can’t do whatever it is you want to do because you’re too busy with work or school or whatever the fuck it is that takes up most of your day. If you really want to do something, you will make time and it will be done, regardless of how busy you claim your life to be. Stop making excuses, they are the enemy of progress.

Moreover, this challenge has shown me that I truly can write about anything and it won’t affect my blog image but rather enhance it. In the past 30 days, so many people contacted me and told me about how beneficial my words have been to them and I appreciate each message so much because each message is and was motivation to do and be better and I cannot be more grateful. I have grown in confidence with my blog as a whole and writing as a skill (that clearly needs some work but is getting there with each written post). This challenge has shown me that I can write, I can blog, and this can be my life. It’s given me hope and it’s made me want to write, blog, and make it my life. For that, I am deeply thankful.

Although I am thankful for this challenge, I am happy it’s over. I feel worn out and am in desperate need of a break and social detox. Writing every single day is straining and begins to take a toll on the mind, body, and spirit after a while. Not only does it become increasingly difficult to find something to write about, it becomes stressful and creates pressure to perform. To say that every day was easy would be a blatant lie. There would be days I would come back from work dead tired but I had to write. Days where I would wake up and the last thing I would want to do is write. Days where my schedule was packed but I had to find time to write somewhere, somehow. Days where I would stare at the blank draft page on my laptop screen, wondering to myself what I could write about only to open a tab on youtube and watch “How to Cake It” videos to procrastinate. To say that this month was mentally and physically taxing would be a gross understatement. I am exhausted.

With that, as suggested by Gwen Persaud, I am going to take part in a minimalist challenge for one week. I had been looking into becoming a minimalist before the suggestion was made to me and I would like to become one in the future. Becoming a minimalist is an epic lifestyle change that I don’t think I can achieve in just a week, so for the sake of my mental health, I will only be ridding myself of all my technological devices. For an entire week, I will not use my cell phone, iPod, laptop, and camera. I will also have no access to the internet and will not watch any tv. The only way I will be able to be contacted for the next week, starting tomorrow, Monday 31 July 2017, is on my home telephone. Not only am I doing this to take a break from social media, the blog, and writing, but also to see if I can survive without listening to music 24/7, relying on Google to answer my burning questions, or winding down by watching The Office. For the next week, I’ll be spending my free time reading books and silently contemplating my existence like they did in the “good old days.”

Until then, be blessed.