1000th Post

For awhile, I knew this date was coming up. But it wasn't until I was finalizing blog plans for this week that I realized that today, Saturday September 3rd, I would write out my 1000th blog post on this blog. Now, I realize that I started Life According To Francesca in March of 2014, but long before then, I started a blog that I don't even remember the name of. I went through so many name changes in my early days that the only one I distinctly remember was Polka Dots On Polka Dots. So. That's that.

I don't remember why I initially started a blog. My first post tells me it was because I wanted a summer project, but who truly knows my reasoning. It was four years ago, too much time has passed to try to remember. All I remember was what happened that day. My mom and I were going to go out to eat at Chili's and I was wearing a salmon colored long sleeved dolman cropped top with a tropical floral printed skirt, both from Forever 21. I still had my braces and wore oddly long necklaces that typically never matched my outfits. And for some reason, on July 23rd, 2012, I sat down to write an about me post to kick off my blog. Four years and 1000 posts later, here I am, wearing a stretched out white tank top from J. Crew with at least half a dozen holes in it and my three year old Victoria's Secret sweatpants with a hole in the crotch. So glamorous. Things never change.

The original inception of this blog is still a mystery to me, but I have a pretty good understanding of why I started to blog every day. Or at least I have a reason now. Maybe I didn't before, but I think it all started to make more sense as time has gone on.

If I haven't mentioned it enough on my blog before, I started daily blogging sometime in March of 2014. It was the spring semester of my freshmen year and I don't think I was dealing with it very well. Maybe I was. I wasn't an awesome college student my first two years. I did well in classes, but I spent too much of my time holed up by myself. I didn't really want to socialize, wasn't all that interested in making friends. I wasn't even content with sitting in my room by myself, but I didn't know what else to do. I read a lot. I read books, stories online, online articles and blogs. I read a lot of blogs. They, unlike the fictional stories full of wonderful characters but still characters nonetheless, felt like I was talking to my friends. One could argue that some bloggers could be perceived as characters, but I'd like to think that everyone is being genuine and authentic.

Through reading blog after blog, I started to get that all too familiar "I can do that!" feeling. I was a decent writer! I was a journalism student who hated hard news and typical journalism! I liked fashion and beauty and lifestyle and college (well, giving advice about college). I always had a blog, whether it was abandoned Blogspot accounts from middle school or Tumblrs, even that one time I wanted to blog through the point of view of the Obama's dogs (if you fancy a read, you can check out the measly amount of posts here). For a while, I thought this blog wouldn't be any different. It wasn't until I took that first initiative that I realized that it was something that I wanted to do. It practically happened over night. One day I was looking through the small amount of posts I had made in a year and a half's time and I decided that I wanted to go big. I revamped my layout (which was horrible, by the way), I picked out a name and I went home for spring break. While I was home, I bought my domain, I planned out posts, I just tried to think of enough content to last me a while. I set out with the initial goal to blog every single day of the week. I knew if I didn't start big, I'd fizzle out. I've missed one or two posts over the course of the past two years, but for the most part, I've kept up. I've gotten content up every single day which is something that I'm proud of myself for.

I didn't start this blog for anything other than to just be in control of what I was writing. This blog became the most important thing to me when I started taking more writing and reporting classes. It's the only thing I'm in control of. I'm in control here. I don't have to report to anyone with ideas just to have them shot down or turned into something else. I'm in control of the editing, the graphics, the entire aesthetics of the operation. I'm in charge of marketing myself and of making this a safe, happy place on the internet. I'm the boss of myself around here and I've enjoyed every second of it.

I didn't start this blog for ulterior motives. I wanted to put myself on the internet. I wanted a visual diary, a written history of my changes and transformations through my teenage years to "fauxdulting" as a twenty something. I wanted to share what I've learned in life, whether it's through advice or stories or lessons I myself have learned. I want to be there for people when they might feel like they have no where else to go. I want to be everyone's big sister, little sister, best friend, mom, whatever they need. I didn't do this for free gifts or money. While I've had the pleasure of working in collaboration with some really wonderful companies, this blog isn't paying for anything. I don't make money and it doesn't matter. I'm just really happy to be here, to share my voice with some really incredible people on the internet.

Hitting 1000 blog posts is a milestone for me. It's something I would've never expected myself to do. Track records show that I would've given up 980 blog posts ago, if that. But here I am, standing strong 1000 posts later with months of content left to come (and that's just what's in the agenda). I don't intend on giving this up, at least not for a very, very long time. This is my favorite part of my day, even when I have to get up a half an hour early so I can make sure I get my post up before class or work. Even when I'm pouring over analytics, drying to find water in a drought of ideas in my head when I'm planning out posts, trying so hard to find new ideas to talk about. This blog is quintessentially me. I put my heart and soul into this blog and to see it flourish at 1000 posts is, well, quite frankly a bit wild. And I'm proud. I'm very, very, very proud. Here's to 1000 more!

To end this post, I want to create a new About A Girl snippet below. You can find the original post here, my first post on this blog ever.

Same Macbook, same Photo Booth shot. Added some teeth because my parents spent enough money on those braces for me to smile. All is well.

Hi, I'm Francesca, a twenty year old who still likes to spend all of her money on makeup or coffee. 

As a life project, I started a blog four years ago. That blog has since grown into a website that I can only describe as myself smushed into one little nook of the internet. This blog started out as a beauty blog and has grown into something so much more. It's turned into a fashion, beauty, college, lifestyle, random tidbit blog. It touches on what to wear to class, learning how to take care of yourself in regards to stress and school, smashing impossible body standards, fighting the patriarchy, and a little too much of Harry Styles.

I'm just here to have a good time and I hope you do, too.

Lovelovelove, 

Francesca