Holy Schnitzel it's my 100th Blog Post!

^ Yeah. What the title says.

Originally, I was planning on just doing a simple 2013-in-review post for my 100th post, but then I realized I had too much to say to fit everything in one post, so that will be coming sometime this week. Right now... time to talk about all of my wonderful experiences. Enjoy this (slightly non-polish-related) post about my amazing past year and a half!

Let's start with a flashback to Monday, April 26, 2012. The date of my very first nail post. Here's what my photos looked like back then:

Yeah.

I have honestly thought about deleting some of these older posts loads of times, but they're definitely fun to go back and laugh at. 

And now, a more personal background from that first blog post:

When I started writing this blog, I was fifteen, nearing the end of my freshman year in high school.  I was unbelievably socially awkward, with the self-esteem of a dead snail, and no self confidence whatsoever. I hated everything about myself- how geeky I looked, how I couldn't talk to someone I didn't know without avoiding eye-contact and stumbling over words, how everyone in the world seemed to be better than be at everything. It was a really, really rough time in my life. At a school where everyone is insanely talented at everything, I felt like a complete nobody who had no talent to call her own. And then... yeah, I discovered nail art. 

It is the most amazing feeling in the world to finally find something you're good at, that you can call your own. Instead of being that awkward girl no one cared about, I was finally someone interesting, because I had a real-life talent that was unique, and I turned out to actually be pretty good at it. 

Now skip forward to a year and a half later: 

After months of photography and nail art practice, my photos have completely changed. No more awkward shadows, or pictures with only one finger in them, or polish in my cuticles, no siree! I still have a huge way to go, I'm sure, but I love looking back at older posts and seeing how much progress I've made. 

And now, the personal background for now:

I'm currently in the second half of my junior year in high school. I've always felt a little strange being on the younger end of the spectrum of nail bloggers, but I love this community more than anything- everyone here is so amazing. I know there are always some oddballs and meanies out there, but for the most part, the nail polish community is full of amazing, wonderful people that I've been so glad to get to know. But anyway, personally, nail art has helped me out so much in my life. Yeah, I'm still slightly socially awkward, but having something I'm good at has completely boosted my confidence in myself. I've had people I rarely talk to go up to me and say they love my nails, or ask to see what design I have on that day. It's such an incredible feeling. 

Finally, onto something huge (and amazing) that happened yesterday:

So know how I was talking about how wonderful everyone in the nail polish community is? Yesterday, I got to experience that when NailNation shared a link to my Facebook page on hers, to over 80,000 followers. 

And then this happened:

Over 92 followers within a minute? At this point I was making awkward hand flailing motions and messaging every person I knew to tell them how excited I was.

I spent ten minutes refreshing my page, watching the number of followers grow, and grow, and grow... I went off to eat lunch and came back to this a half hour or so later:

I was completely stunned. I really had no idea if I should be throwing confetti in the air and throwing a miniature celebration party, or if I should be sitting in my chair in fetal position, sobbing as a result of happiness. I ended up staring at my screen blankly for ten minutes, trying to comprehend what was really happening. 

I checked Facebook again a bit after midnight, and the count was over 2,000 page likes. Silly sleepy me forgot to take a screenshot, but I was definitely an extremely happy girl. 

And then I woke up this morning to this message from a friend: 

So yeah, definitely an incredible way to start off the day. I'm honestly the happiest girl in the world right now. All I've ever loved is being able to share my passion with others, and now there are over 3,000 to share it with. You all are AMAZING! But for such a huge page to share mine in the first place... that's what I love about this community. Everyone helping each other out. Maria at NailNation made a small dream of mine come true, and that's something I will never, ever, forget. 

Oh, and I feel like this is a big enough accomplishment that it calls for a reproduction of my feelings via a Microsoft Paint drawing:

^ Pretty accurate. Other than the confetti. But still accurate. 

And now for my cheesy thanks:

First of all, of course, Thank you to Maria for sharing my page, giving it a chance, and allowing me to meet so many wonderful new followers.

Second, thank you to everyone who's been with me from the start. You all are the best for sticking through all of this with me, even some of my less-than-incredible first few months of posts. We all start somewhere, and everyone who encouraged me during that time had a part in motivating me to keep on going and improving. 

Third, to Kathryn and Esther, who have been the most extraordinary friends throughout both my best and worst moments. You two have put up with all my nail art problems and adventures, from dealing with the "help, I have no idea what to paint my nails, give me ideas," to the "oh my god I suck at nail art I can't do this anymore I want to quit." You have kept me going with your endless motivation for forever and I love you guys more than anything in the world! 

And finally, to all of my new Facebook followers! I haven't known any of you for very long, but I'm so glad to have you all here. I hope you enjoy my blog and my nail art, and I'd love to get to know all of you in the comments. 

So... I think that's all! Wow. 100 posts done. I'm so proud of this milestone. I can't wait to see how much everything has changed by my 200th post, but that's a long way away, so for now... later taters! Thanks for reading!