3 Years Blogging, 3 Years into Anime

Ehe. I’m still here.

Some of you may not have realised this but I’ve only started watching anime 3 years ago, a week prior to creating this blog, before the birth of Anime as a Cup of Tea.

That night, that peaceful and ordinary night like any other, I felt the urge to create something, to use a platform to express my venture into the so-called anime world.

And, voila.

Here I am, surprised at myself making it this far, and really, really grateful for all of those that inspired and accompanied me to my third year of this WordPress (anime) blogging community.

Seriously, each and every one of you is awesome.

To be honest, the first year of getting into blogging was the toughest part. There were A LOT of things that I didn’t know about blogging (I’m still learning now) and TONS of uncertainties ahead at the time. Not much people paid attention to what I wrote, how I expressed my opinion, or that if my content is worth their time or not. I was just another blogger, being trialed by the time and my determination.

Of course, I wanted to give up.

I had the mindset that even if I quit this meaningless blogging back then, and left this behind, no one would had bat an eye. The existence of Anime as a Cup of Tea was just that small that it could fade away any moment at the time. I passed it the verdict that it had no impact whatsoever in my life, and struggling to come up with things to write that not much people cared about would just be a waste of my time.

Sometimes, I just anticipated too much on things that might not bear any fruit.

And, that’s the thing.

That’s the reason I was able to keep going.

I wanted to see if my efforts can lead anywhere, even if it’s a dead end.

I dragged myself up. I pushed myself to write more, to learn how to write more, to write to learn more. I kept writing and writing reviews, adopting one style after another, being as creative as I could, as interactive as I can, accepting challenges, tags, and eventually, awards. Blogging awards: I didn’t know these things existed.

My first award was a “Mystery Blogger Award” in 11 January 2020, created by Okoto Engima with the intention of helping new bloggers; I was nominated by Amelia from A Girl & Her Anime for it. I believe I haven’t even reached 50 followers back then. But it was like a certificate from the community saying “You did great coming this far.”

I was overjoyed and attempted to hide it beneath my calm usual composure when I wrote the post. Many might have been nominated more than once for it but people weren’t lying when they said the efforts you pour might not result in anything, but if it does, the satisfaction is immeasurable.

It did. The feeling that I was able to reach out to anyone at all, was amazing.

And I kept going. Until now. 141th post. Until here. This sentence.

As of now, I’m still trying to further develop my writing style, and my sometimes-good-sometimes-bad grammar. The only thing holding me back is that for these few months, there are quite a number of academic projects that I’m involved in, plus some time spent to create the web novel, so I haven’t been able to update and post as much.

Back to the topic, the reason I created this post is not only to celebrate Anime as a Cup of Tea’s birthday.

No.

No no no.

I wanted to grab your attention.

If you’re a veteran blogger with years of experience, thank you. Throughout your many years of blogging, I can be sure that you must have helped at least a few bloggers, either directly by nominating them for awards, letting them join in the fun of tags or challenges, or indirectly by just clicking the like or filling up the comment section.

If you’re a new blogger who stumbled upon this weird post, then I welcome you into WordPress community. This community is so wide that it could be daunting and scary at first, but fret not, there are many, many talkative and friendly blogger out here willing to help you.

They have the skills, the knowledge and the connections. But for the very least, you need to be able to motivate yourself to continue. They have been through trials and emerge victorious from it.

If nothing works out, I’m here. As cringy as it sounds, like straight out of novel, you can reach out to me for my beginner-intermediate experience, or you could join in the tags, make yourself known. You might have heard it again and again, yourself telling you that it’s stupid to continue, but I’m just gonna say it again: don’t give up.

With that being said…

Happy 3rd birthday, Anime as a Cup of Tea.

Thank you for being here for these three amazing years.