Unwanted Life has managed to make it to its second year of existence, so I thought I’d mark this anniversary with another roundup article like I did for my first year.
Unwanted Life started on 7th January 2019, with its first article – Date Night: The Difficulties Of Meeting My Partner – going live on 14th January 2019. Thus, the second anniversary of Unwanted Life going live and publishing its first article is officially this Thursday. Happy anniversary to Unwanted Life.
Anniversary: What Have I Done During This Last Year?
Not long into my second year of blogging, the entire world charged. In March, my country locked the nation down as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and swept across the globe. Who would have thought at the time that such a thing would actually happen, even though we’d all been warned repeatedly that it was inevitable?
Who would have thought that during such confusing and strange times we’d also have Black Lives Matter (BLM) sweeping across the globe as well? With this, I broke from my usual trend of staying on topic with my articles and wrote content related to BLM, one of which was the letter to my mum to try to get her to ditch her far-right stance on people like me, who just want to be treated fairly and live safe.
The previous year, I was proud of creating my Global Crisis Lines page, which I created to provide people with useful contact information for mental health support in every country I could find. This last year I created a UK Crisis Lines page with detailed information for a whole host of mental health services across the UK, covering eating disorders, anxiety, OCD, etc. I did this to provide the additional support my fellow Brits might need. At some point, I may try to do the same for the US if it’s not too complicated. However, it’s possible that, due to how states might have their own individual mental health support services in place, this could be quite a task to complete.
I also joined Time To Change’s mental health champion programme (which you might have noticed in the sidebar), to try to do more for the mental health cause and community. I created several posts around this (here, here, and here) to try to inspire others.
I redesigned my site as I got tired of the bugs with my last theme and the lack of support to try and fix them. In doing that, I also started the process of updating a lot of the images on my site to reflect my personal aesthetic. After all, I’m a Goth at heart.
I created a series of mental health and inspirational quote images to share across my social media accounts. These images took the usual kinds of mental health phrases and inspirational quotes, but instead of the cute imagery I don’t really like, I gave them my own twist for their backgrounds, so they also fitted my aesthetic.
Pinterest became a huge issue this last year. For nine months I was getting 190-200k impressions, then suddenly it just tanked to 80k, then dropped to 40k. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it and Pinterest‘s customer service team wasn’t interested in helping. I’ve been complaining to them for four months now, trying to get answers. I’ve yet to get anything useful from them. Man, I hate Pinterest.
Anniversary: My Five Favourite Posts
I think I’ve made quite a few good posts this year if I do say so myself. My writing has gotten better and I think I’ve found a good balance between research, advice, information, and my personal accounts. Because of that, I’m actually finding it hard to pick my favourite five. But here goes, in no particular order.
My ‘Graded Exposure: The Ultimate Method To Tackle Fears‘ article was created because I had great personal success in using it and it’s often something I’ve used to help others. So I created a workbook people could easily use to practise graded exposure on themselves and then wrote the article around that. Graded exposure was the first thing to cause changes to my anxiety disorders after 15 years of unrelenting anxiety-induced psychosis.
I wrote ‘Hikikomori: Social Anxiety Or Modern-Day Hermits?‘ because I was fascinated by the phenomenon, and often saw it presented in anime. It was a fun piece to write as it gave me a reason to investigate it more than I probably would have done otherwise. There are a lot of things about Japanese culture and history that I love, but also aspects of it that are troubling and outdated.
I’d been looking for a way to talk about my culture for a while and I finally manage to do that with my ‘Alternative Subcultures: Goths And Mental Health‘ article. I got into metal around the age of 16 and I’ve never looked back. Identifying with this kind of music, finally allowed me to stabilise my identity problems caused by the racism I suffered growing up. Being of mixed ethnicity in a White town wasn’t a fun childhood. Metal changed that for me.
I wrote a letter to my mum because I couldn’t take her far-right quoted soundbites anymore and decided to turn that into my ‘Black Lives Matter: A Letter To My Mum‘ article. Unfortunately, her reply and subsequent conversations are just as ignorant as ever. I really wish my mum and I saw eye-to-eye on racism and bigotry, but it doesn’t appear to be something that’ll ever be resolved, and if it stays as it is, I don’t want anything to do with her. Blood isn’t a good enough reason to keep someone that toxic in your life. Real family is who you choose.
Because I had both positive and negative mental health experiences in gaming, I wanted to write an article that looked at both sides of the topic, rather than the common scaremongering kind. The result of that wish was ‘Is Gaming Good For Your Mental Health And Wellbeing?‘. Gaming is a big part of modern life, so it’s an important topic for a lot of people, especially as gaming seems to have increased during the pandemic, if my struggles to get a Nintendo Switch are anything to go by ha ha ha.
THANK YOU!
A big thank you goes out to all the people I’ve met who supported me and my blog along the way, and of course, to my readers, who give me the reason to keep this blog going. I hope you continue to support me and my blog.
As always, leave your feedback in the comments section below. Also, feel free to share your anniversary, birthday, and milestone stories in the comments section below as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, then sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, get push notifications for new articles by clicking the red bell icon in the bottom right corner.
Lastly, if you’d like to support my blog, then you can make a donation of any size below as well. Until next time, Unwanted Life readers.
Congratulations on your 2nd anniversary! Sounds like you had an impactful year, despite the madness. Looking forward to what you have in store in the future! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you ☺️
Congratulations on your anniversary! I have discovered your blog just couple of months ago, but I always find your posts interesting and useful! You had a very busy year! Thank you for sharing x
Thank you for being a new follower of my content
Congrats! A big milestone to reach- most bloggers quit with the first 2 years. Loved learning more about you. Keep up the good work!
Clarrisa | later-means-never.com
Thanks, I’ll try ?
Congrats on your second year of blogging! I’m finishing out my first year and there is so so much to learn.
Congratulations on finishing your first year, that’s the hardest
You have grown so much as a blogger and I guess as a person as well. I love reading your blogs. Your posts are very inspiring and interesting. Congratulations! Please, keep blogging!
Thank you kindly ??
Happy anniversary! Sounds like you’ve been doing a lot to create good in your life, & I admire your intentions greatly. Keep moving forward ?
Thank you ?
What a great anniversary post to sum up the last 2 years of your blogging journey! It is always great to reflect!
Indeed it is
Congratulations on 2 years! I am loving the aesthetic of your blog right now. I think the main reason is simply that it reflects YOU and you can tell when that happens based on the connection between someone’s text and their visual aesthetic. I have really enjoyed getting to know your blog and reading your content this year. I can’t wait to see what’s to come in 2021.
Thank you ? It’s feels much more me after updating my theme
You’ve tackled some important topics here. People’s views don’t tend to change quickly. Sometimes you just have to plant a seed and give it time to grow!
So very true
Congrats on 2 Years! You’ve created amazing and moving content. Thank you for all that you do!!
Thank you ☺️
Happy blogiversary!
It so inspiring to look back and see how far you have come in terms of blog appearance, content, and enjoyment. I have to love what I am writing and reading to make it a part of me. Your balance of sharing information and reinforcing it with your personal experiences always connects with me. 🙂
Thank you so much, it’s nice to know I’m getting the balance right between information and personal account
Happy Anniversary. Well done for writing such an insightful site. ?
Thank you
Congratulations on two years!! I just started my blog two months ago and I am excited to see it develop.
Thank you and welcome to the blogging club
Happy 2nd anniversary. It is always important to look back and have a review/reflection. It’s amazing how your blog has grown so much in 2 years. I only discovered your blog few weeks ago lol and I’m looking forward to seeing what you bring in 2021. Blogging isn’t as easy as most people think it is but being able to sustain/keep your blog for 2 years now is a big milestone. Cheers to greater heights and many more years!
Ruth
Thank you. Blogging is a lot of work, especially when you need accurate information
Congratulations on your anniversary! Your work is so important.
Thank you
Wow congratulations, I just passed two years. It’s great
to hear your experiences and how you changed your design..
Thank you
Congratulations on two years of blogging!
Pinterest is being difficult for everyone. Whatever updates they did in the last few months really hurt our traffic too.
I really hate Pinterest and their total lack of support for content creators
Happy Anniversary! This was a fun post to read with your reflections about the past year!
Thank you ?
Great post 🙂 It’s lovely that you’ve had such a good 2 years blogging, and I enjoyed watching how you reflected on your blog of the past 2 years x
Thanks ☺️
Congratulations on your second year bloggiversary! Your blog is awesome and always well written. Ps: I’m right there with you with hating Pinterest.
Pinterest has become a nightmare to figure
Congratulations! Another milestone. Your articles show dedication and many of us learned a lot of things from your niche. Keep it up!
Thank you ?
Happy anniversary! And congratulation on your two years of blogging!! You have grown and did a lot in these two year, great work!
Thank you
Thanks for sharing your blogging progress with us! It’s nice to look back and see how far you’ve come. Oh, and Pinterest is being a pain to many people right now, including me. At least you’re not alone in that department! All the best in the future!
Thank you. I just wish Pinterest were trying to help is content creators adapt to their new changes, but they really don’t want to help us
Happy 2nd Anniversary! This is a great way at looking back over an incredible journey that you and your blog have been on. Here’s to even more success and amazing posts x
Thank you ?
Waoh! A lot could happen in 10 days, much more 730!! I hope you never stop, blogging they say is a journey.
Thank you. Are you a blogger? The account you commented with doesn’t seem to link back to a site
Congrats on your 2nd anniversary. My blog celebrates its 1st year this month and I really loved reading about your journey with blogging.
Thank you. Congratulations on your upcoming one year blogging birthday
Congratulations!
Thanks
Happy 2nd blog birthday! I’ve loved reading your content in 2020 and can’t wait to see what’s next for you!
Rosie
Thank you ?
Congratulations on your birthday and indeed what a year it has been – not like any of us ever expected
Hopefully one that won’t repeat itself once this is all over
Happy 2 years!!! here’s to many more!
Indeed, thank you
Congratulations on your 2 years of blogging! can’t wait to reach this milestone later this year. Pinterest has me stumped too! I hope they can fix this. I would hate to see the platform go down. Thanks for sharing your round up of thoughts x
http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Pinterest aren’t going to fix it, but nor are they going to tell us how to use the new algorithm. Congratulations on your up coming bloggerversary
Happy Anniversary! Many great articles that I’ve learnt from a lot 🙂 Thanks for sharing and hope to see your blog grow even bigger!
Olivia