Hi! A couple of weeks ago, I posted on my Instagram that I am celebrating my 11th anniversary in the blogosphere; that was on October 8th. I’ve been meaning to write something here, it’s just that I can’t find the time and I haven’t been in a “writing mood” lately. But I have some free time right now, so here it is! ♡

Honestly, I can’t even believe it’s been that long since I started this little corner of mine in the internet. I was young — 15 years old! — and all I wanted was for someone to listen to me and a place where I could vent out all of my teenage angst. I found out about blogging, did a couple of research, registered for so many platforms until I settled down on Tumblr where I met so many people who share the same sentiments as me. There I talked about daily life, my thoughts on random things, etc. Dustypromises have been a place where I find comfort throughout the years.

Quoting my tweet:

It’s my blog’s 11th anniversary! I can’t believe I’ve been in the internet for that long nor that my blog has surpassed my anxiety attacks & indecisiveness from my teenage self to my adult self. It’s like a silent parent that has been watching over me throughout the years.

In 2013, I decided to create a separate blog dedicated for my love for books where I met a lot of bookish people in and outside my country! I absolutely had fun gushing and swooning about our favorite books, tropes, and characters. Unfortunately, I deleted it as it made me feel like reading is an additional task instead of a hobby that I love. I pressured myself to read faster so I can review more books, and I started to feel anxious, and suddenly reading isn’t as fun anymore. So I went back to reading at my own pace and stopped pressuring myself and just do me. Aside from that, it was hard for me to manage two blogs then, it’s still hard for me now (this is also the reason why I only have one Instagram account. I attempted at a separate account for my love for books twice, and failed. Haha!). And that’s why I decided to just have one blog for everything — so I merged my book blog with my main blog.

In 2019, after spending months of contemplating, I finally gathered up all of my courage to finally leave Tumblr behind and move here on WordPress. Along with that, I also made Dustypromises a dot com — a decade-long dream that finally came to life. All thanks to my boyfriend for helping me. I honestly wouldn’t know the hows and wheres for all this without him.

Anyway, these past months, I noticed that I’ve earned quite a number of followers on my blog and I am very grateful for each and everyone of you — thank you for seeing my blog worthy of your follows and for thinking that my posts are worth reading. ♡

With that, I thought that it’s only fitting to introduce myself and my content again as I don’t think I’ve done this in years!

The Girl Behind Dustypromises

I’m Alena, but you can call me Lenn; 26, an Aries, and an INFJ-T. 

I’ve always dreamt of inspiring people with my words. I am usually found in the corner of a room either listening to music, writing, or reading. My favorite songs are usually from pop rock bands, I’m also an Arianator and a Little Black Star. Aside from music, writing, and reading, I also like taking photos of random things — places, food, and books.

I like watching TV shows, movies, and anime as well — some of my favorites are Riverdale, Friends, Stranger Things, 50 First Dates, The Notebook, Sword Art Online, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Another, Erased, and a lot more! ☺

Blog Content

When I posted my 11th year of blogging on Instagram, one of the questions that I received was how was I able to stay dedicated and to keep my blog up and running throughout the years, I didn’t really have an answer to that! Haha I think the closest I can come up to answering that question is that I only write whenever I feel like it — there are a couple of weeks a month where I get sudden outbursts of ideas and that’s when I write different posts and schedule them days or weeks apart (depends on how many blog posts I write). Anyway, below are the features currently running on blog:

• The Dusty Diary – TDD is a feature on my blog where I still talk about my not-so teenage angst, mental health, and other more personal stuff.
• Eureka! Moment – This is a segment that I launched a couple of months back where I feature stuff I recently discovered. It can be a new TV show, book, shop, items, etc. 
• What I Wore – WIW is a feature on my blog dedicated for my love for fashion. I have always loved dressing up, it’s honestly one of the things that I love about going to a “physical office” because I get to dress up and try new styles. If you’re a long-time follower of Dustypromises, you’d know that I’ve been following fashion bloggers (now influencers) like Kryz Uy, Laureen Uy, and Tricia Gosingtian since 2009. This feature is on hold right now, because we don’t get to go out all that much because of the pandemic, but this will continue once things normalize.
• Stuff I’ve Been Reading Lately – I started this when I moved here on WordPress. It’s a monthly episode here on Dustypromises where I talk and look back on the books that I’ve read, the books I bought, the ARCs I received, etc.
• Reading Plans – This is a new episode on my blog where I list down the books I plan to read for the month. I’m not really good with TBRs, so this is actually a trial and error until December. So far, though, I am able to follow the order of books but I don’t get to complete the whole TBR because I am a slow reader.
• Book/Series Reviews – Of course, I write book reviews! No explanations needed.

Eleven years, who would have thought? Here’s to more years, more adventures, more lessons, and more friends. And if you made it to this point, thank you. Thank you for reading and for making my blog worth a second of your time. ♡