There, but for the grace of God, go I

Though many, many positive things are currently happening in my life, I recently took a moment to reflect on the sheer magnitude of how I got to this point after a tumultuous couple of years post-graduation. In the span of two years, I lost both my grandma and an uncle within a week of each other; I nearly lost my father; and I barely escaped death my damn self.

...And yet, it could have been so much worse

After months of recovery after the car accident, I resumed my job grind. Instead of doing the type of work I was doing before, which paid well but wasn't really fulfilling to me or relevant to my planned career track, I stopped accepting such positions in favor of volunteering my services in the hopes of landing that perfect full-time opportunity developing and designing websites.

It's working well for me so far. Back in January, I wrote myself a little note with some goals I want to achieve this year:

• Explore careers in my fields of interest
  
• Look up ways to monetize my blog

I'm FOCUSED, man!

After joining an organization for professional women in technology, I networked like a mofo and finally landed a position where I have near full control over a small business' online and social media marketing campaigns. Not only am I doing what I love, I'm also building my portfolio and gaining new skills.

As for monetizing my blog, I do have some space dedicated to ads (in the sidebar and at the very bottom of my blog), however, I hate an ad heavy site and just don't want that for my viewers. Online ad revenue isn't even worth it unless you make practically your entire site an ad space; at best, one makes *cents* a year with modest amounts of ad space. I have my thriving Lego heart pin business, which is one way I've managed to monetize my blog. Another way I've found to make money off this thing is through the skills I've amassed maintaining my site. Things like blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other technologies are second nature to me; now that I think about it, I've been using a computer since I was three years old (!!!). I still can't wrap my head around the fact that people are willing to hire me to do what comes so naturally--and what I'd do for free anyways, out of sheer enjoyment.

The road to recovery post-accident was anything but easy, but with a little a lot of will and determination, I fought through. Things could have ended drastically in that crash--visions of the car skidding ever closer to a brick wall, less than eight feet behind the concrete barrier that ultimately stopped the vehicle from hitting it, still haunt me--and there hasn't been one moment where I haven't kept the quote "There, but for the grace of God, go I" in mind.

I felt pretty sh*tty for the next few months, but regular checkups with my doctor revealed nothing wrong aside from some understandable aches, pains, and minor injuries. In other words, I have a clean bill of health--something I'm especially grateful for as so many others cannot say the same. Seeing as how I've been gifted not only with my life, but also with my health, I set out to maintain that by regularly exercising through my physical pain (I do yoga, strength training, and aerobics about 5x/week), eating healthier and in smaller portions, and drinking more water. Doing so has done wonders for my body, inside and out.

I still get occasional sharp pains, especially where the seatbelt lay across my body (something I addressed more fully in my Chakra Khan post). Whenever that happens, I take comfort in the fact that I do have my life and health, and I remind myself to allow myself the time it takes to fully heal from such an intense impact.

All in all, things are on the up and up I've worked extremely hard to put myself in a competitive position in terms of securing jobs of interest and good health. It is so exulting to see the fruits of my labor finally begin to blossom.