Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Regardless of whether or not you choose to celebrate this holiday, and whatever type of love you choose to celebrate in your life – today can conjure up mixed feelings. But this year, I really want to focus on those positive emotions of love and happiness, and share those emotions with all of you, because… today is our 100th post at chiaragoesglobal! WOW. It is so crazy to believe I’ve shared 100 little tidbits of my soul, pieces of my life, thoughts and reflections with you all. It’s been nearly five years since chiaragoesglobal started and I don’t think I imagined having the blog evolve into what it is today! I am so thankful to all of you who have been a part of this journey. Let’s take a look back at what some of the highlights have been throughout these past 100 posts!

Many of my most popular blog posts have surrounded big updates or major changes in my life. Taking it all the way back to 2016, one of my most popular posts of that year described the transition I went through when I came back from exchange and returned to life in Canada. For those of you who may be new here, I started chiaragoesglobal while I was on exchange in England during my undergraduate degree, so this was definitely a key point in time for me. Transitioning back to Canada brought all kinds of uncertainties, and that’s what this post really dived in to. Read the whole post here.

2017 brought a massive wave of change for me, and I am so grateful to have had the chance to write about all of those changes at chiaragoesglobal. The height of those changes was captured in The Wake-Up Call, my most-viewed post of the year and possibly ever, and one of my favorite posts that I have written! This post really captured some of the complexities I had been facing previously and the decisions I made to move forward in a different way. It was a big turning point in my life and changed the course of my future. I’m grateful to have been able to share that moment with all of you.

One of my most popular posts of 2018 was describing my transition to living in Vancouver. This very much continued the wave of changes from 2017, right into a full host of new beginnings. Of course, this change brought its own set of uncertainties as well, many of which I contemplated in this post. It really captured the beginning of my time in Vancouver and set the stage for the coming months of my journey in the city. Read the full post here.

2019 was a big year for me in terms of changes. I had a lot of big moments, including completing my Bachelor’s degree and graduating from university, a grad trip, and landing my first position post-graduation. One of your favorites was writing about the end of my undergraduate degree in Undergrad is over?!? Over the years, my studies have seemingly gone hand-in-hand with what I’ve written about at chiaragoesglobal, and transitioning out of that phase brought new directions for the website. Shortly after this post, I revamped chiaragoesglobal into a full-fledged website to better capture the direction I was hoping to take in the future.

As we all know, 2020 was an unprecedented year for so many reasons. On top of getting used to my new position in my first year after graduation, we faced a global pandemic that brought up many health issues for me, particularly mental health issues. The Light at The End of The Tunnel was one of the first posts I wrote discussing my mental health in a bit more detail, along with how I was coping with the pandemic and ‘adult’ life in general. Writing about these topics also shifted the feel of chiaragoesglobal in new directions, which have continued to this day.

And finally, we have started off 2021 with a bang, with my last post fully diving in to my mental health journey throughout the past year and receiving a great response from many of you. I feel very grateful to be able to discuss these types of topics with you all. Though the past year has been a major adjustment for me personally in terms of my mental health, I am optimistic for what the future holds and hope to keep riding this wave and sharing more with you all!

As you may have seen through some of the posts I just mentioned, the blog has evolved over time, along with my own development. chiaragoesglobal has grown from being a narrowly focused story about travelling around the world and experiencing new places to much more than that. A couple of years ago, the blog was developed into a full website with more features, such as Work Experience and Academics, that capture a much fuller picture of who I am. My writing has also shifted and expanded with changing circumstances, especially since global travel hasn’t been happening lately due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and there have been many other things on my mind. Due to these circumstances, I have expanded what I write about at chiaragoesglobal to include more of a focus on life in general, and mental health in particular.

Now, the blog portion of the website hosts 7 different categories:

Canadian Adventures: Tales of travels across Canada, including various regions throughout BC, Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.

Critical Thoughts: Examining various topics through a critical lens, including nationalism and colonialism, sustainability, Indigeneity, the Black Lives Matter movement, toxic positivity and more.

Global Travels: Tales of my adventures throughout the globe, primarily in Europe and also in parts of Asia and Africa.

Home: Okanagan + Vancouver: Exploring my own backyard in the Okanagan and in Vancouver.

Mental Health + Wellness: Discussing aspects of mental health and wellness, as it relates to my own personal journey.

Personal Journal: Reflections on the life I have lived and experiences I have had.

UBC Bucket List: Adventures while completing my Bachelor’s degree at UBC.

The newest additions to this category list are Home: Okanagan + Vancouver and Mental Health + Wellness. I have been writing about both of these areas more frequently over the past year and will continue to focus on them in future posts to come. If you haven’t had the chance to browse all of the categories yet and see the full scope of the blog, I highly encourage you to check it out! I am always open to your feedback as well!

Of course, I want to take this time to extend the love and gratitude I hold for these past 100 posts to all of you. I am still always surprised when I realize that people actually read what I write, and I continually have to come to terms with how my words can have an impact on others. But truthfully, you engaging with my work has had a big impact on me. I am thankful for everyone who has joined me on this journey thus far and continues to engage with everything I share, whether on the blog, on Facebook, or on Instagram. I am hopeful that chiaragoesglobal will continue to grow and change as I do throughout the years, and I aim to bring you more inspiring content. Stay tuned for exciting new projects and many reflections to come your way throughout this year, and the years to follow. Cheers to 100 posts, and here’s to the next 100!!! #chiaragoesglobal <3