Highlights of 2016

Hello, everyone!

It’s the end of the year! Finally! I thought 2016 would never be over! But there’s only one more day to go! Wow.

I know that 2016 hasn’t been a good year for some people, me included. So many things happened that I really don’t want to talk about because it’s over and let’s just forget about them. But even with all the bad things, I think some pretty amazing things happened in 2016, too, both online and IRL, so I want to talk about that 😀

1.I started a blog and a bookstagram account!

I’ve always thought about starting a blog but I never got to it until this year. I was so worried that I wouldn’t have anything to say (okay, I don’t actually know what to say most of the time, but at least I still say something. That counts, right?), and that no one would want to read what I write (but now I have you guys! Yay!). So I guess I found my courage in 2016 and finally started Of Reading and Random Things 🙂

2.I got to talk to so many nice people!

All of you are so nice in this community and I’m so happy to be a part of it. I know that I don’t really ‘start’ a lot of conversations with people, but that’s because I have low self-confidence. I’ll try harder in 2017 😉

3.I did well on my exams

Yeah, I just wanted to say it because it made me so happy when the results were posted 🙂

4.I learned valuable life lessons from refugees

This has got to be one of the best things that have ever happened to me. I don’t think I said it in my post, but meeting them made me feel poor. Even though I have more things than they do, and I can afford to buy so many things that they can’t, I feel like they have more than me. They can feel happy even with the simplest things while I feel bad if I go to a bookstore and not buy anything, they’re grateful for things that I take for granted and it just made me feel small. So yeah, my trip to Langkawi Island to meet the Rohingya refugees was definitely the highlight of my year.

5.I achieved my Goodreads reading goal (finally)

Yeah, I know, I didn’t read a lot this year. Especially compared to previous year. And to think that this was the year I chose to start a ‘book’ blog haha. BUT! I did it! I read 30 books. Some of them disappointed me, but there were a few good ones too 🙂

I’m definitely going to try to read more next year, especially since the pile of unread books in my apartment is taller than me 😀

6.I improved my photography skills. I think. Maybe.

Taking pictures for bookstagram is not easy guys. Not for me anyway. It’s so difficult to come up with ways to take photos of books, especially when I’m so scared it would look like another bookstagrammer’s photos. But, there were a few pictures that turned out really pretty and I love them! 😀 😀

So here they are! #shamelessselfpromotion