Happy Sunday, readers! Today marks a very special occasion here at AvidBards – our one year anniversary!
So much has happened in a year’s time, but one thing has not changed: our gratitude to you, our readers. You have helped us thrive, inspired us, and made our jobs as writers so incredibly fulfilling. In celebration of this special day, we’ve put together some of our highlights from the past year. From our most popular posts to the review requests we’ve received, we’ve had a more productive year than we could have ever imagined. Here’s to many more!
In a year’s time, we’ve written 103 total posts. With very few exceptions, we’ve managed to stay on task with posting biweekly every Wednesday and Sunday. 91,494 words have been written in total – what a surreal number! Our most popular posts have been our music video review, The Story of The Ballad of Cleopatra, and our compare & contrast piece, Black Mirror: UK vs. US.
We also accomplished a major feat for ourselves in receiving our very first review requests, which you can find here: The Benefits of Dream Interpretation and New Year’s Resolutions Made Smarter. Not only that, but we already have a few more requests! We look forward to reading and reviewing the texts that the authors have reached out to us for. We continue to be grateful that our thoughts and critiques are being sought after.
In lieu of the New Year, we also have reviews of our favourite releases in Music, TV, Book and Film for 2018: Best Release 2018: Music, Best Release 2018: Television, Best Release 2018: Book, and Best Release 2018: Film. 2018 was a great year for new releases!
There was another first for us, when we came up with our first gift guide for book lovers: Book Lovers Gift Guide 2018. We love coming up with new and innovative material, especially for our fellow media lovers.
S’s favourite post to write was Self Care Practices for a Productive Mind. I loved being able to change direction and write something that was both personal and could be helpful to others. We try to cultivate an aware, open, and positive space for all on AvidBards. Writing a post like this aided in reminding our readers that not only are we here to offer insight on various mediums, but we’re also here to advocate for self-care, mental health, and general wellness.
Z’s favourite post to write was Is Originality Dead? I enjoyed writing this because it caused me to be more reflective on my own experience with media. It’s so easy to pass judgment, but the real challenge is to continue to keep an open mind, especially when we are initially hesitant. This post led to multiple self-realizations, reminding me that while art is indeed subjective, it’s important to give every work and piece a fair chance.
Among these accomplishments (yes, we are totally tooting our own horn a little! Self love FTW!), we’ve also managed our various social media accounts with the same love and passion that we do our website. On Instagram we have 221 posts, with countless other pictures taken. We have active platforms on Facebook – where we also post interesting articles from outside sources – and on Twitter, and Goodreads.
The past year has taught us a lot. We’ve had our ups and downs, some steep learning curves, and our fair share of technical difficulties. It has not always been an easy process, but we remain grateful for every single experience that AvidBards has brought to us. Writing and sharing our thoughts with you, our readers, has been one of our most rewarding experiences.
We’re extremely grateful for your readership, following, and support. Thank you for believing in our creativity, and putting stock into a couple of avid bards.
~ S & Z ~
