Friend Friday: Gratitude

Hey, look, y'all! It's a Friend Friday post! Remember when I used to do this? Yeah, me too. This week, we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of Friend Friday - started by Katy of ModlyChic, and that kind of coincides with the day that I realized that I'd missed my own blogiversary. I'm lame like that. I guess it's due to the lack of Internet access, general busyness, and planning for my mom's arrival (Tomorrow, y'all. Don't expect me to be around.)

So for this week, we're being grateful and filling in blanks.

1. When it comes to me personally – I owe a lot of who I am to: my parents and extended family. I get my sense of humor and love of music from my dad, my sense of style and sassiness from my mom, my love of travel from my Army brat upbringing, my need for sun from my Puerto Rican heritage.... You know, all of those fundamental things. So, thanks, family.

2. When it comes to be professionally – I owe a lot of who I am to: again, my parents for being models of hard work. Also, Mission Year for giving me a framework for combining my love of justice and service with my faith in my everyday life, because, yes, that's professional. Oh, and Dr. Zuffi, my college advisor who gave me some amazing opportunities and saw more potential in me than I saw in myself.

3. When it comes to the art of blogging, I’m grateful to these people for helping me through some rough spots: First, B, of course. Then, my bestie M and my mamita who secretly and not so secretly read and enjoy. Finally, all my blogger friends. Y'all are such an inspiration.

4. One blogging challenge I’m grateful happened because it made me stronger was... my first experience with blogger burnout, because it taught me just to roll with it and move on with the blog my way. And now I feel better equipped to deal with the same.

5. To my readers, I’d like to say… a million thank yous. Mil gracias, en serio. Thanks for sticking with me through patchy internet connections, a drastically limited wardrobe, an international move, three jobs, and all the craziness that has been the last year and one week of blogging. Y'all are the best.

Oh, is that the music? They're telling me to wrap this up, so....