Hi everyone! It has been a while… But I felt I needed to write a New Year’s post to help finish off the year.

Life is strange. This year was terrible for many. Natural disasters. Terrorist attacks. Certain “presidents.” But for me personally, it was a really good year.

My Personal and Professional Life in 2017

Many developments happened in my personal and professional life this past year. Some really special and important things happened with my life at home- namely my fiance moving in! I also (finally) began to build my professional career as a writer, both in the anime industry and in other areas.

After a terrible 2016 (filled with anxiety, panic attacks, and questionable career choices), I finally started to feel better around the beginning of the year. And to make things even better, a dream of mine came true: I got an internship with Anime News Network! This, in my opinion, was my first official step into the world of professional writing (ya know, even though it wasn’t paid). I gained journalism experience, learned about HMTL, was introduced to different kinds of anime, and met some really awesome people!

For six months (February to August), I wrote news articles for ANN and absolutely loved it. My time at Anime News Network would lead to other opportunities, but I will get to those later.

Throughout the course of my internship, other things were happening to me as well. This blog was starting to take off! I had some posts that did well in 2016, but this year is really when my traffic began to pick up and I began to have consistent readers. I attribute this… to OWLS. If you aren’t aware, OWLS is a group of bloggers that write about acceptance, social issues, and more. Through them, I was inspired to write posts on different topics (some of which are my best, if I don’t say so myself!), and many of them were well-received.  The members of OWLS promoted my blog with retweets and comments. Without them, I don’t think this blog would have become so successful. Thanks to its creators and all of its members! Please check out OWLS and read the different members’ posts. You can read highlights from OWLS’ first year here.

During the first part of the year, I attended Grad School and officially graduated with my Master’s In Education in May. My final project was about Japan and its education system, My paper was actually inspired by anime. Please read my research proposal here (I put a lot of effort into it). If that is too long for you (and I admit, it’s REALLY long), you can check out my piece on Little Witch Academia, which is kind of a condensed version of my project.

Once I graduated, I began putting all my effort into finding a job. Over time, I began picking up different freelance writing jobs. This is partly why I haven’t been as active, which I am really sorry about. It has been very overwhelming recently. People left both my tutoring job and one of my writing jobs, which (although technically still freelance) has become my main job. Because of this, I had to pick up the slack at both jobs and have been working long hours. Things have been calming down at my tutoring job, so hopefully I can put more effort into writing (and this blog!). Although it has gotten in the way of my blogging, I am very grateful for my main writing job because it is really what I want to do with my career (educational writing), other than writing about anime, of course.

Aside from that, a lot has been going on in my personal life. As I mentioned, my fiance officially moved in. And a lot of construction has been happening on my house. (You can read a little bit more about that here.)  Within a short period of time, we had new floors, a new roof, and new siding installed. My fiance and I also had to renovate the room we are staying in- I will have pictures of that once all my anime stuff is displayed. However, just like my tutoring job, things have begun calming down and I hope to write more. I finally have a proper desk :’)

Other than all these things, something else happened in my life, in terms of both anime and my writing. I was a news correspondent for Anime News Network for two conventions! Although my internship ended, I was recommended to be a freelance correspondent. I went to New York Comic Con and Anime NYC. At both conventions, I did panel write-ups and interviews. I plan to write out my personal experiences at both events because I had so much fun and I want to share it with everyone. For now, here are some of the major articles I wrote that were posted on Anime News Network (I still can’t believe it!). Ugh, you will be able to see my real name, haha…

New York Comic Con

At Comic Con, I was able to interview the staff of RWBY and meet Hiro Mashima!

New York Comic-Con 2017: First Look: Batman Ninja

Interview: RWBY’s Kerry Shawcross and Lindsay Jones

New York Comic-Con 2017: Q&A with Fairy Tail Creator Hiro Mashima

Interview: Hiro Mashima

Anime NYC

At Anime NYC, I was able to interview the director of Princess Principal! 😀 I also watched the premiere of the live-action Full Metal Alchemist movie, as well as interviewed its director. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I also interviewed the staff of IDOLiSH7, which was surprisingly good. (I also met OtakuGamerGirl at Anime NYC, and she was super nice!)

Convention Report: Princess Principal at Anime NYC

Interview: Princess Principal Director Masaki Tachibana

Is The Live-Action Fullmetal Alchemist Movie Any Good?

Interview: Live-Action Fullmetal Alchemist Director Fumihiko Sori

The Stylish Boys of Idolish 7 at Anime NYC

Interview: IDOLiSH7 Producer Sokichi Shimooka and Director Makoto Bessho

These conventions, although extremely enjoyable, were part of the craziness that prevented me from working on my blog. I basically ended up disappearing for a couple days at a time, haha.

ANIME!

I can’t end this post without mentioning some of my favorite anime from this year! I plan to make a more detailed post… but I wanted to add something fun and less personal in this post, haha.

Here are some of my personal favorites from this year:

Gabriel Dropout

Hina Logi

Hinako Note

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Made In Abyss 

New Game!!

Princess Principal

SCHOOL GIRLS STRIKERS

Urahara Meirochou

Urahara 

Little Witch Academia

Attack On Titan

Boku No Hero Academia

Love Live Sunshine!!

Plans For 2018?

I am not going anywhere. But… things are still a little crazy. My mini-apartment isn’t quite done, but it should be soon. I am not exactly sure what is happening with work either. I might be teaching as an adjunct at a community college, but I am not sure if it will happen. If it does, I don’t know what my schedule will be like. Either way, I want to reorganize my schedule and priorities, so I can focus more on writing. I do plan on writing on here, but I can’t give any promises, in terms of how often I will write. I’ll try my best though!

Thanks for everyone who has read this blog over the past year. Thanks to everyone who has left comments, retweeted my articles, spoken to me online, or has supported me in anyway. I wouldn’t be here without you and I really appreciate it!

See you around in 2018!