Celebrating a Year of Growth
When I was in college, I started the practice of reminding myself all that I had accomplished through the year. I did this on my birthday each year as a gift to myself. I’m someone who often feels that I don’t really do anything. So, as a gift to myself, I would write either a blog or a journal entry to remember that I wasn’t just taking up space. That I was doing something with my time. I stopped doing this for a while. Grad school was a hard time to get through, and I just didn’t remember to do this for a couple years. But I miss it. And I’m trying to be a little better at celebrating my accomplishments. So here we are. It was my birthday on Oct. 21st, let’s see how this past year went.
Y’all, I did a lot lol.
I'm just gonna list out all of the highlights, and then reflect on a few. This is not an all-inclusive list, my memory doesn’t always work in my favor, so my bad if I missed anything big that you think I should have mentioned. But I'm so thankful for this year and everything that I accomplished. This last chapter of my life was one where I committed to content creation, so a lot of what I'll talk about will center around that. I grew a lot and had some really cool opportunities. Let's check them out!
Got a new job, with benefits!
Continued as a Stream Team member for BGGC
Joined the Admin Team for CalamityDarling
Re-launched my YouTube channel
Launched my own website (pizzayeti.com, where you are right now)
Played the last Splatoon 2 Splatfest for Team Star with some friends
Had so many incredible Sister Streams with RydeHappi5258 (love you so much, sis)
Had my first "sponsored" stream with Medievalien
Got to spend more time with my sis because I could work from anywhere
Met a few online friends in person
Did my first podcast as a guest with DintheAbary
Joined BardintheYard for Smooth Souls
Got to be a part of E3 as a streamer for Lifeslide (shoutout to Dreamteck Studios)
Became a Co-Community Manager for Brown Girl Gamer Code (love y'all, Code Crew)
Spoke at Virtuous Con with CalamityDarling about Black women in Gaming
Got to be apart of the VIP Beta for Floppy Knights
Completed Enlight's Career Program in their Social Media and Community Management track
Celebrated 3 years of streaming on Twitch
Got to be a speaker at Game Devs of Color Expo
Helped run 2 esports tournament in different roles (Apex and VALORANT)
Started writing again with some dope Twitch channel points redemptions
Did my first twitch channel review for a friend (really loved doing it, tbh)
Also started uploading my old Twitch VODs to YouTube so that I would have an archive of streams
Looking through this list is a great reminder that other people believe in me too. Shoutout to D and Bard for inviting me into their spaces. I had a great time talking with yall and hope that it was a great time for yall too! Thanks for sharing that space and letting me share about my experiences.
Thanks to BGGC for trusting me to be a community manager. I’ve learned a lot from being a part of the community and hope that I can continue to be a help for yall. We’re gonna build something dope together, the world is just gonna have to be ready for it.
Sis, thanks for always being there to support me. We’re really out here doing this lol. I’m proud of how far we’ve both come and so ready to see where else we can go. I’ve always got your back.
To all the friends I’ve made online, I wouldn’t be in this space without your encouragement. Thank you for helping me see what’s possible. I’ve learned so much from you and I am so incredibly thankful for your presence in my life. Here’s to when we can see each other in person, it’s gonna be a dope time.
To the Pizza Shop. To the residents of the Corner Kingdom. I couldn’t do this without you. Thanks for causing chaos in my life and also pushing me to acknowledge that I’m more than just here. You’re all amazing and I’m blessed to have the chance to learn from you. A good Calzzone to you all.
This last year was hard. I've felt really weighed down at times when I stop to think about everything that's going on in the world. At times, I don't know how to take steps towards what I want to do. But, looking back on this list, I trusted myself to do a lot this year. Other people trusted me to be a part of their spaces. I want to do more in the next year while also making more space for resting. I got plans for what I want to keep working on, so be ready. I'm so thankful for what I've worked to build over the last few years and I'm so excited to see what's coming next. Join me on the journey, won't you? Grab a chair in the pizza shop, settle in, and let's keep growing and dreaming.
Thank you so so much for being a part of it.