on beginning, again.

Well, it's been a while. Here I am again, starting anew... again. So, here's me writing on beginning, again.

Let me re-introduce myself. My true self.

Hello. My name is Areli Joy or AJ for short. I'm a 25-year-old Filipino bookish content creator. I have been in the book community since 2014. I remember my early days in book blogging on Tumblr, because I didn't know Wordpress or Blogspot yet at the time. I would post book reviews and the good old book tags. Then, around 2016 when I discovered the then small community of bookstagram. That's when I also made the switch from Tumblr to Wordpress. Ahhh... it feels so nostalgic writing about those days. I didn't know it yet then that books would be such a big part of my life and that eight years later, I'd still be the same [but also different] book nerd as I always have been.

Now, I know that there are some people who knew me as Polly Darling. That's because in 2020, I decided to create a pseudonym for myself. Going back to my childhood room due to the pandemic really took a toll on my mental health, to the point where I struggled knowing myself. It was a time of unknowing and exploring and getting to know myself all over again. Thus, Polly Darling was born. Fast forward to mid-2021. I got in a huge slump. I couldn't find anything that I'm excited about anymore. I couldn't read. I couldn't write. So, I did what I do best -- I ghosted everyone.

Fast forward to 2022. Here we are again. I'm craving for new beginnings again. But most of all, I craved getting lost in books and talking about them and making them my personality. So, I decided to first: get back to bookstagram, and now second: get back to book blogging.

I am now 25 so here's to hoping AND doing my best to finally be consistent with this thing because I may not be sure with a lot of things but I am ultimately sure with one thing -- I love reading and talking about books is what makes me feel alive.

And this is how everything is going at the moment. 

These are my musings on beginning, again.