Today marks the 2nd Anniversary/Birthday/Blogiversary of Utopia State of Mind! Yay! Happy birthday to me! I am so happy I’ve made it today. It’s been an intense journey of ups and downs.
Lessons Learned
- Burn out is a thing. Don’t be caught in that Venus Fly Trap!
- Take yourself seriously and own the work you/I do. It’s a lot of work, a ton in fact, so own that!
- But also give yourself a break. Take that extra moment, if your review is late, don’t sweat it.
These are the biggest things I learned within the last month! But it’s been the feeling, the aesthetic I’ve been feeling for the last year as things have escalated in my own life and in my blogging life. I know I haven’t mastered them by any means, but these are just some things I wanted to share. If you ever want more info, be sure to check out my monthly reflections (a new series for this year, where I focus a bit more on the personal side of things). See January and February.
Representation – The Theme of Birthday 2
So our theme for this 2nd birthday bash is representation – what it means to us, books that represent us, and representation we still want to see. I think that our book community has come a long way. There are now more POC on covers, LGBTQIA+ Rep, and discussions taking place. But that’s not to say we are done. We have such a long way to go and we’ve only begun. I wanted to share a few books that helped me see myself and an area where I want more!
Books that Represented Me
- The Leavers by Lisa Ko – and Daniel’s difficulty with his adopted parents and his birth mother (and the feeling of not fitting into either)
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – and the conversations about adoption and the debate we have about whether a child belongs with their birth parents or adopted parents
- Welcome Home edited by Eric Smith – and the different snapshots of adoption (as well as the different points of view)
These are just some of the books that touched on adoption and the creation of families.
I want more….
They are a start, but I want more and specifically more about girls who were adopted and who never know their birth parents. I want to see girls struggle with maybe never knowing what happened to them or that sense of belonging. Books that talk about how you never know your real birthday, about the casual racism of our family members, or about this kind of almost survivor’s guilt I feel.
Giveaway
But I wanted to give back to you all, my readers, and also celebrate some of my very best blogging friends in the process. Look forward to almost two weeks of guest posts and reviews AND a giveaway for a 2018 pre-order of your choice.
My amazing guest post contributors for this year are:
WordWoonders (POST), Green Tea and Paperbacks (POST), Writing Wolves (POST), A Kernel of Nonsense (POST), FLYLēF Reviews, (POST) Foxes Fairytale (POST), Huntress of Diverse Books (POST)
I, and the rest of us, highly recommend these four books, but you can pick any 2018 pre-order of your choice.
Congrats! Love your reviews. Here’s to many more years of sharing bookish thoughts!!
aww thank you!!!
Happy blogiversary, Lili! Oh my gosh, burn out is so a thing. I never thought I’d get to the point where blogging felt like a burden, but taking breaks is kind of essential for sticking around for a long period of time. Looking forward to reading everyone’s posts!
Thank you!!
I know right? It sometimes feels like this task I need to just check off
Happy blogoversary!! I don’t think I realized you were adopted, so that’s an interesting thing to learn—I have an adopted son, so I have a little insight into the thoughts and feelings of adopted kids, though of course it’s limited since I’m not in my son’s head (and since he’s just ONE person). 🙂
Oh wow that’s so cool! Yeah I am! I was adopted at 6mo old 🙂