I Am Grateful

When I first started this blogging gig a little over a year ago, I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing. I didn’t know how to “work” WordPress, I didn’t know how to insert pictures, I didn’t know how to get people to READ my site. I actually had to have someone set up my SmashleyAshley Facebook page. Yes. I am serious.

I knew nothing.

I started looking at other blogger’s sites and reaching out to other people to ask them how they did it.

One of the first people I reached out to was a lady named Jocelyn. Jocelyn had a good following on Facebook, had a really pretty blog, and she seemed to know which way was up.

I did not.

In the very beginning, I had reached out to many people, but Jocelyn was the only person who answered, stuck around and really sincerely helped me out. Many wrote back and told me a few tips, but not Jocelyn, she stayed. She checked in. She became my new friend in a really big world.

I remember doing my first giveaway- no one entered. I had to share the post on my personal page and ask my friends and family to enter. And, they did; however, Jocelyn went and shared my giveaway post on her page so her readers would enter too.

If you aren’t a blogger, you may not understand the magnitude of that, but to me, it was huge. I was so grateful.

In life, it’s gestures like Jocelyn provided that are monumental to remember. Jocelyn’s help, encouragement, and even the simple click of a button by sharing my post stuck in my brain, and always will.

She was my first “blogging” friend.

Naturally, down the line, I met more and more friends. Amazing friends. I am surrounded by a virtual circle of some of the strongest women I know and ones that I know I can lean on and share anything with.

I try to make an effort to always remember the people that lifted me up in life; whether it was when I was down, treading through some of the scariest parts of my own life, venturing into the unknown world of blogging, the people who saw something in me when I did not see it in myself, or even just encouragement.

When it comes to my writing, I try to remember the people like Laurie Hochhalter, Chantelle Gray, Melanie Craney, Kia Birdsong, Danielle Gregorich, Kim Tomlin, Kathy, Krista Houston, and most of all, my dad, for pushing me to take a plunge into a super foreign land before SmashleyAshley came about.

Regardless of blogging/writing, this is applicable in life too.

We all have someone who lent us a hand or motivated us at some point in our life, and as I was chatting with Jocelyn today, I was reminded how important it is to remind those people how thankful you are for them. Remind those people that you are grateful for their support, for lifting you up, for motivating you when you felt like whatever you were trying to accomplish was the dumbest thing you’ve ever set out to do.

So today, I thank Jocelyn from Displaced Yinzer. Thank-you for lifting me up and showing me the ropes. Thank-you for being so kind to a stranger and for lending your tips and advice. Thank-you for friending me in an ocean of people all doing the same thing.

To my family and friends that I mentioned above, thank-you for your words of encouragement before I started all of this. I know there are many more of you that I am likely leaving out but you are all people who messaged me privately and told me to really DO this and not a day has gone by that I have forgotten that. Thank-you for your encouraging words. I am truly having the time of my life. I have said it before and I will say it again: I love doing this. I love the feeling of purging my thoughts through my fingertips and hitting “publish.” Even more so, when those thoughts and stories are met with comments from people who relate, who laugh with me, who laugh at me; all of it, I love it.

So, to all of you, my friends-old and new, and my family that pushed me, encouraged me, support me: thank-you.

And, to my first blogging friend, Jocelyn, I am grateful for you. I will never forget the kind things you did for me and the places you pointed me when my blog was a newborn. Thank-You.

I hope that reading this has made you think of someone that lifted you up at a time in your life when maybe you were lost, didn’t know what you were doing, or just lent you a hand. Thank those people. Remind those people that you are grateful for them.

You can snag this image below and message it to someone you are grateful for. Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make our day. I know that can be said for me.

Who are you grateful for?

Remember, every time you click that brown button below, it gives me one vote! Again, thank-you all for your amazing support. You all make me happy.