Thanks to Cynthia for the Blogger Award Nomination

A few weeks ago, I named Cynthia and her blog as one worth reading and connecting with, while doing a Liebster Award post. She is now the only person I have ever nominated who has participated, and her response to my zombie apocalypse survival question was hilarious. You can find it here.

Shortly afterwards, she nominated me for the Blogger Award. This is a new one for me, with slightly different rules from the usual.

The Rules

Nominees are required to:

1. Thank, and name the person who nominated them
2. Give a brief history of their blog
3. Give two pieces of advice
4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the same award

So let’s get started!

Thank You!

I have already thanked Cynthia, but can I tell you guys how while looking for the nomination post on her blog, I stumbled upon one of the most thought-provoking pieces I had read all month? You can find it here.

If you have a super short attention span, you can find the related Twitter thread here:

This year, my readers asked me to write more blog posts about racial tension in America, and my experiences as a non-citizen & a minority.

A White female follower felt so inspired by those posts that she shared her own story of "not fitting the profile". Here comes the thread!

— Alexis Chateau 🇯🇲 (@alexischateau_) December 12, 2017

Cynthia is one of those longtime followers of my blog that I look forward to hearing from every week. She always has a witty remark to make, a tidbit from her life as a wild child, some self-reflection, and words of support.

So thank you Cynthia, not just for nominating me, but for being such a constant presence on my blog!

Brief History of My Blog

I’ve been blogging for 14 years, but prior to this blog, it never was consistent. I would start a blog on one particular thing, exhaust the topic, and then couldn’t be bothered to keep up with it anymore.

When I decided to quit my corporate job doing payroll for Delta Airlines, I decided I needed a way to document and share that experience with everyone who could tolerate me! And so, this blog was born.

View this post on Instagram

Finished my trip to New Milford, PA with a bang at the county fair! 🙋New York… you're next. 🙌

A post shared by Alexis Chateau 🇯🇲🇺🇸 (@alexischateau_) on Aug 22, 2015 at 10:13pm PDT

It was originally called Volunter. Write. Explore., though the URL was always my name. I guess I didn’t have the guts to just say it was my blog. It seemed a little pretentious to name it after myself.

But after a few months, when the topic expanded to include much more than volunteering, writing, and exploring, I changed the title to my name. What started as a travel blog now includes racial and cultural posts; and as of October, a mini-vlog.

Two Pieces of Advice

I’m the one in my circle of friends that a lot of people come to for advice, or at the very least, to confess their sins. Naturally, over the years I’ve developed a mountain of mantras I live by. It took some time to settle on just two!

When You Can’t Look Up, Look Ahead

I’ve had a rough life. Whenever my grandma and I get to talking, it inevitably comes up. She will especially never forget the night I tore out of my house in my college uniform, racing to hers, screaming for her, half my face swollen, with my biological father after me.

That is one of the most traumatic experiences I can remember. I moved past it easily as a teen. But in the dark hours when all else was asleep, 21-year-old me would wake up screaming. How do you convince yourself something isn’t real, when it was, once-upon-a-time?

To say I fought hard to be where I am today is neither figurative nor an understatement. So how did I make it through my all-time lows? I forced myself to push through to the end, because I know nothing lasts forever.

No matter how terrible situations once were, they inevitable become a part of the past. All you have to do, is keep pushing until you find your rainbow or your silver lining.

Never allow another person’s opinion about you to influence you — unless it’s true.

At 28 years old, there are very few things anyone has ever told me about myself that I didn’t already know — good or bad. I may not rush to agree with someone when they offer honest criticism, but believe me, I already knew the flaw existed. I credit lots of self-reflection for that, and the self-awareness it created.

My devil-may-care generation likes to pretend other people’s opinions don’t matter, and in most instances they shouldn’t. Especially as a blogger, if I listened to many of the nasty comments I got, I would never write, much less tackle the controversial topics I post about.

However, when the critique is true, and you’ve begun to hear it from someone who holds an important place in your life, or hear it often, it’s time to consider a new course of action.

That is, of course, if the critique was bad. If it’s a compliment, you may want to look into options to make a career out of it, as was the case with my writing.

Nominate Bloggers

I nominate the following bloggers. As always, no pressure to participate. Just a friendly nod in the direction of your blogs.

• Trent’s World
• Tony Burgess
• Shandean Williams
• Ladyhood Journey
• T. Dashfield

Thanks again to Cynthia for nominating me — and for everyone else who nominated me for anything this year. Here’s to getting to know each other better with more of these for 2018!

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