I have ten minutes to catch the train; it only takes two to get there. I pack up from MakeOffices, the co-working space where the blogging workshop was being held, say my thank yous and good byes, and head out.

I remember that when I was drafting my favourite posts of 2016 last year, there were blog posts that came to mind immediately. But this year, I had to do a little more hunting to find my favourite posts. Although I’m generally happy with most (if not all) of the blog posts I publish, there wasn’t any one that I was especially proud of or that meant something especially deeply to me, except for one. I think I’ll need to do something about that this upcoming year.

What better time of the school year to make new friends than at the beginning of it? I’ve been waiting for the right moment to share this little anecdote, and I think that moment is now.

Let me take you back in time to the fall semester of my first year at college. I had just finished a club meeting and there was someone in that club who was so cool (and wholesome??) and I wanted to be their friend, but I knew we were different kinds of people. I could see us potentially being friends because that person is a friendly person and all around good. But I knew we probably wouldn’t be best buddies. And I was okay with that. I was okay if all they did was say hi to me when we crossed paths.

Whilst in Shanghai, I spent a day with Sheena and a day with Grace. If you read my blog post about it, you’ll know that with Grace I spent the day at 田子坊, a place with a bunch of boutique shops, and within this enclave we found a shop where we could make our own customised music boxes. I’m kicking myself for not remembering the name of the shop so that you could check it out for yourself if you wanted to make your own music box, as it probably won’t be very easy to find, even if you are already within 田子坊; the storefront looked like any of the other shops, and you don’t know until you go inside that there’s a small loft, upon which there is a sort of studio where you can make your own music box.

I’m really cautious about writing “how to” blog posts, because I never know what I’m doing so I don’t feel like I’m in any position to tell anyone how to do anything, but a “how to” on how I edit my photos has been requested, and I’ve noticed some of you ask questions about it in the comments as well. I don’t know how helpful this will be, but I hope you get something out of it!

This past weekend I was at The Blog Connect conference, which was hosted by PHLbloggers at Saxbys Coffee’s HQ! I first heard about The Blog Connect and PHLbloggers as a reader of Amber’s blog Ember + March. Last year (2016) was the first year of The Blog Connect, and Amber was part of the core team who organised it, and also a speaker at the conference, so naturally she shared about it on her blog. Reading the post, I remember thinking, okay I’m going to that next year! I signed up to join the PHLbloggers network after checking out their website and then kept a look out for The Blog Connect 2017. When it came time for PHLbloggers to announce The Blog Connect 2017 and start promoting it, I bought my ticket right away (and got the early bird discount!) before I could talk myself out of it. Something I’ve come to learn about myself is that I will never feel prepared enough (in general) and I will always feel like I can prepare more (in general), so I just need to get a move on and dive head first (in general) (except for in the case of a shallow pool).