i need your help ~ reader survey

Hello, my friends! This is a short little request for you guys.

I’m in the process of creating a blogging plan for the next year. But to do that, I really need your help. If you have a few minutes to spare, would you please take this short reader survey that I’ve created? Your feedback is so important to me, and I really would love to hear it. If you have other thoughts that the survey doesn’t cover, please let me know down below or through my contact page! This blog wouldn’t be the same without you, so please share your thoughts with me!

Click HERE to take the survey.

Thank you so much!

All my love,

Chloë

rising up ~ a poem

sometimes you get stuck in what feels like a pit

a pit full of tar

sticky, black, unpleasant, maybe even agonizing

sometimes you get stuck in quicksand

and you’re stuck and you keep sinking downwards

and then, all of a sudden,

after so many baby steps,

you start to rise.

you rinse off the tar,

you’re pulled out of the quicksand,

and all of a sudden,

you’re met with a million possibilities,

a million little beautiful things you had forgotten all about,

a million wonders.

and it’s strange, it’s so strange,

but it’s so amazing

so refreshing.

all of a sudden, your future feels so bright,

maybe not quite like how you planned it

or even how you dreamed it,

but somehow just right

maybe even better.

and you’re rising up,

you’re rising up,

you’re rising up,

instead of sinking down through the quicksand,

instead of being stuck in the tar.

they told you that you would never be able to fly.

they told you that there was nothing out there for you.

but they were wrong.

you’re going to prove them wrong.

you’re rising up,

rising up,

and soon,

you

will

fly.

justice, injustice ~ a poem

how is it that we’ve come to this?

a world where anyone can tell you what to do

and if you don’t comply you could lose

your livelihood, your home, your health.

how is it that we’ve come to a world where

you can be told what to put into your bodies,

that you can’t do so and so without bending to their demands?

how is it that we are so fearful and suppliant? 

you can have your own opinions, 

i don’t mind that.

justice is being able to think what you want to think,

to believe what you believe in,

without receiving hatred 

and without having to fear repercussions. 

injustice is what we are experiencing now.

the world is filled with so many different opinions,

so many mandates,

so much hate.

do what is best for you and your lifestyle,

but please, 

let me live my life.

let me fulfill the dreams and plans i’ve had since i was tiny.

don’t steal them all away from me.

and not just me,

all the other children of my generation,

all the adults with their own plans and dreams,

and all the tiny babies that have to grow up in a fractured, different world. 

let us be free,

like we are supposed to be,

let us make our own decisions.

i bear no malice towards those who spread and sow injustice,

but still, 

i plead.

it’s not too late to change the trajectory.

it’s not too late to rise on an upwards path.

if it stops now, we could still be okay.

don’t make us wonder whether our tomorrows will ever be normal again.

we can rise up and put together these fractured pieces, 

if we work together,

if we love each other,

if we stop spreading unkindness and malice.

let us rise up. 

bring back the justice, 

banish the injustice. 

hopeful for a new year ~ 2022 goals and visions

Hello, friends, and happy New Year! Today I’m going to be sharing with you some of my visions and hopes for the New Year.

As mentioned in my last past, 2021 was a pretty good year, and I am determined to make sure 2022 is even better. So let’s jump right into this post and get the year off to a good start!

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times ~ 2021 recap

Hello, friends! I’m starting this post on November 19th. So it’s going to be a while until you actually get to read this, but since I’m going to try to cover an entire year (let’s see how well my memory holds up XD) I figured it would be best to start well in advance, especially since my brain is the size of a walnut and I can barely remember what I had for yesterday’s breakfast, much less any exciting occurrence that happened in January. (I really need to document each month of my life better. XD)

Anyway, this post is probably going to be a pretty long one. I’m listing all the books I read this year, highlights of the year, how I did on my 2021 goals, all that kind of stuff. So I’m not sure how many of you will read all the way through, but I decided to write this up anyway because I really wanted to. 🙂

reading books like my personality type

Hello, friends! Today I’ve got a really fun post for you.

A while ago, Diamond did a really cool post: reading books like her personality type! And I absolutely loved that idea. I love personality types. Knowing my personality types have helped me understand myself and others more. So I just had to steal Diamond’s lovely idea.

Now, something very interesting happened when I was searching up books for my personality type. The top recommended books for my personality type are books that I have already read and absolutely love. In fact, three of the books I’m covering today are favorites that I’ve had even before I decided to read book for my personality type.

I’m an INFJ (though there is some ongoing debate as to whether I’m actually an INFJ or an INFP with J tendencies because of extreme anxiety). Originally, I had selected eight books, mainly most popular results that show up the most frequently when you search “INFJ books”, and a couple of books that you have to dig deeper to find. However, I’ve had to lower that number down to five because of how crammed my current schedule is. (If you like this post, I might just do a part two!) I’ve read three of these five books before at some point in my life, and I’ve done some skimming of them since, to make sure I remember everything. And two of the five books I hadn’t read before I started work on this post (though one was coincidentally already on my “next to read list”.)

Without further ado, let’s jump into this!

know the novel 2021: part three ~ words written

Hello, my friends! Today I bring to you the last part of the Know The Novel 2021 link-up. I can’t believe NaNo flew by so quickly! November was a blur. Then again, so was most of 2021. Let’s jump right into this post, shall we? 🙂

life lately ~ november 2021

My goodness, what a month November has been. It’s been a whirlwind of good and bad, but I think I’ve grown a lot. I feel different, somehow. Older, maybe, but also younger. I feel more like the old me than I’ve felt in years, and it’s a strange feeling, because I’m not the old me. I’m feeling more joy and more vivacity, and at the same time, a whole lot more stress.

Overall, I’m glad for what November gave me. As always, it had its many ups and downs. I’ve learned some life lessons, and I’ve had some fun times. So let’s jump into this re-cap!

gift guide ~ in which Chloë has fun talking about presents even though she doesn’t celebrate the holidays

Hello, my friends! Well, I’ve got a different kind of post for you today. Very different. See, I love reading gift guides. Probably because my love language is gifts and I like making lists of things to get for the people I know and the things I want for me. And I’ve always wanted to write a gift guide because there are so many cool things out there to give someone.

Now, the thing is that my family hasn’t celebrated Christmas since I was six years old, and it’s not a holiday I intend to celebrate again. (There’s many reason for that, but that’s not what today’s post is about.) Neither do we currently celebrate Hanukkah (though I do intend to try it at some point in the future, maybe even this year, but who knows when it will actually happen.)

All that being said, I’ve never written a gift guide before. I’ve thought about doing it in the middle of the year, but that just seemed odd. Most people use gift guides for the holidays. Anyway, after some thought, I decided that this year I’d write up a gift guide around the holiday season, just because I want to. So let’s jump into it (after this long, rambly intro.)

(Oh, one last thing. I’m afraid that most of these items are a bit more on the girly side, so my apologies to any guys reading this and to anyone who is searching for a present for a guy.)