Well, 4 years have passed since I started my blog and honestly? I don’t know where those 4 years have gone! I feel that this particular year has been a rather eventful one to say the least.

At the start of my 4th year in blogging I had been invited to Lapland with Huawei to learn more about their app; StorySign which is an app that when you place your Huawei phone over a book, it then translates the words into Sign Language for children to read, particularly at bedtime so that deaf children can enjoy the magical stories and have that connection with their parents that many hearing people take for granted! The trip to Lapland was nothing short of magical and is a place I shall remember for a very long time.

With that being said, as time went on just after New Year, I felt as though I was in a rut, going through the motions, not knowing how to move forward and I felt that having had such a strong, successful 3 years of blogging, things were starting to change.

I had all of these different emotions and feelings and to be quite frank, it got a bit much, so I took a break. Looking back, I remember feeling a little apprehensive talking about my mental health on my social media platforms, however, I was completely taken aback by the support and messages that I had received!

I went to Prague on my first ever solo trip abroad and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Going somewhere alone, somewhere new, and somewhere where I could actually switch off and not worry about posting on social media or on my blog was refreshing, and did me the world of good.

When I returned however, the company I used to work for was going through a huge restructure and resulted in me taking a steep cut to my hours and I was offered a ‘one off compensation fee’ or ‘redundancy’. I remember at the time that no matter how much or little money they were going to pay me, I was to take redundancy.

I had been at this job since I was 19 years old, my first ‘proper’ job, yet it was a job that I treated as a safety net, for that security in case things didn’t work out with my blog. I think I also knew that if I hadn’t have taken the redundancy, I would never have properly moved on and perhaps my mental health might have plummeted further.

Taking the leap to go self employed as a full time blogger thus far, has been incredible.

There have been times where I have thought ‘Oh God, what if I don’t make any money, what if things don’t work out?’ which of course are all natural thoughts, but since becoming full time, I feel that it’s given me more drive and ambition to constantly keep working and to keep going.

Since becoming full time with my blog now, I feel extremely passionate about raising as much deaf awareness as I can, being a Phonak #hEARo and to break the stigmas surrounding deafness and one particular part that I have loved doing on my social media platforms is #SigningSundays!

What should’ve been a one off weekly thing for Deaf Awareness Week back in May, has turned into a weekly thing every Sunday and this has allowed my followers to learn and join in with trying to guess the ‘Sign of the week’!

I don’t want to ramble on too much, but I’d like to thank you all for your support that you have shown me over this past year and of course, the 4 years since I started my blog. I really do appreciate it, and here’s to the next 4 years!