“Beware the barrenness of a busy life” is a quote that appeared on my new browser tab this evening.  In a way, it’s appropriate.  Here I am at 10 PM, realizing that I have no games ready to review, and homework that I should really be working on instead of fixing that.  The insanity of the last week has left me feeling at loose ends this weekend, despite knowing full well that I have work to do.  Maybe it’s warranted, though.  Multiple 1-2 AM nights, one 3:30 AM night (is it even considered night at that point?), and probably something like five litres of hot chocolate.  Thinking back, I barely know where half the time went.  There were frustrating university assignments, final classes that seemed to last for an eternity, and the joys of crunch time on a video game development project.  Yet it’s all just a blur.

On the other hand, I feel motivated.  I know that I’ll never truly stop being busy, yet it seems like the worst may be over for the time being.  Coming out of last week, I’ve realized that, aside from three exams and presenting the aforementioned video game, I have very little on my plate, at least from a school standpoint.  In its place is something that I find far more exciting.

See, this little blogger is starting to take her first steps into the bigger world.  I’ll soon be doing some voluntary writing for a pre-existing outlet!  While I’m not prepared to divulge the details at this time, suffice it to say that I’m absolutely thrilled at this opportunity to move forward!As one might suspect, though, that’s managed to eat up a fair amount of my time.  I’ve been trying to balance school, my blog, and my “professional” (I mean, I like to think that my blog is pretty professional, but hey) writing.  Something had to give eventually, and this week, it turned out to be my blog.  Even though I don’t actually have anything published elsewhere at the moment, just figuring out the logistics of it has been quite the undertaking.  Not that it’s difficult per se, just that every response from the outlet had me practically vibrating with excitement.  This is something that started as a dream of mine less than a year ago, and I can’t believe that I’m already taking this new step.

Anyway, the big question right now is probably: what are the implications of this?  Well, at the end of the day, I hope that there are none.  If I could continue writing for my blog while doing freelance reviews elsewhere, that would certainly be the ideal situation.  However, it only makes sense for me to advance my professional career whenever possible, even if it comes at the cost of my existing work.

To clarify: I am not shutting down.  I repeat: I am not shutting down.  It’s just going to take a bit of time to figure out how I want to handle these new scenarios being thrown my way, particularly if I’m also balancing a full-time job in the summer.  The way I see it, the worst case scenario is that my blog just becomes a hub for the work that I do on other sites.  While I can’t publish any of the reviews I do for other sites here, I doubt that linking to them will be an issue.  If you really enjoy my work, I’ll do what I can to make sure you can still access it!I apologize if I’ve gone around in circles a bit.  I’ve taken a “stream of consciousness” approach, so I’m hoping I’m hitting all the right beats.  Just in case, though, here’s a TLDR:

• No review this week, because I’m bad at time management.
• I’m going to be doing some professional writing elsewhere!
• I have no intention of shutting down this blog as a result of the above fact.
• I hope to get better at time management so that I can keep all of these plates spinning.
• I have no interest in sacrificing my long-term mental health for any of this, so if I need to pull back on the “personal” work I do on this blog, I may.
• I love every one of you who’s reading this!  Thank you so much for helping me get to where I am today!  ❤