Bupa Blog Award 2018 Finalist!

BUPA Nominations

I’ve been very fortunate to have been nominated three years running for the BUPA Blog Awards – 2016, 2017 and again this year 2018.  I’m not sure who nominated me.  It’s a bit of a mystery!  It could be just one person or maybe more than one person but whoever you are – thank you so much!

2018 – something a little different!

This year though, something a little different has happened.  I was very surprised to receive an email notifying me that I am a BUPA Blog Award FINALIST in the Personal category!

I know!!  To say I’m surprised is an understatement!  I’m also really chuffed, touched and heartened.

Chuffed and Touched

I don’t blog to get awards.  I blog because I enjoy it – the writing; the creating; the connections you make; the therapy it provides; the learnings I gain from the research I do, the posts I read, the people I meet, and what I learn about myself; the possibility of being of help to even one person in my own small way; the technical learnings; the keeping my brain active – there are too many reasons to list! 

Regardless, it is lovely, really lovely, to feel seen and recognised for the words I put within my little space on the internet.  Blogging can be a lonely endeavour at times.  We don’t have workmates sitting nearby to bounce thoughts and ideas off or to chat to or go out to lunch with through the day.  We don’t have line management providing feedback, encouragement or guidance, or pats on the back for a job well done.  We are responsible for our ideas, our own motivation, and our own pats on the back!  We mostly work alone, though we do make some awesome connections online who we hopefully get to meet in person too (I’ve met several of my blogging friends), and we fit our love of blogging in around all the rest of what life demands from us.  It takes a lot of our time and it costs quite a bit of money to keep it going too.

So, it is really touching to think that 1) someone thought enough of my little blog to nominate it, and 2) the judges thought enough of my little blog to choose it as a finalist. 

After six (6) years of tapping away on my keyboard sending words and thoughts out into the interwebs, this truly means so much to me.  I’m not invisible.  My words have been seen and do have some value.  That means a lot to me – YAY!

Heartened

It’s heartening to know that you don’t have to fit a specific mold to be in the running for an award or to be noticed.  You don’t have to be a particular age, look a certain way, follow a precise blogging formula or style, be the most popular, or the most extroverted, or the most creative, or the most prolific poster, etc!  You just have to be you, chipping away, trying your best, being authentically yourself.

So here I am – quiet, introverted, little middle-aged me – a BUPA Blog Awards Finalist!  I never ever imagined I would be, but I must say it does feel really quite bloody lovely!

What’s next?

The process from here goes a little like this:

24 September 2018 – Finalists announced
24 September 2018 – People’s Choice voting opens
15 October 2018 – People’s Choice voting closes
25 October 2018 – Winners are announced at an exclusive event
29 October 2018 – Winners are published online

To have been selected as a Finalist, I have to say that I already feel like a winner.  I will be floating on air for a long time just on being a finalist.  It’s such a privilege and honour!  However, as you can see above, People’s Choice voting opened yesterday.  If you would like to see quiet, introverted, vertically challenged, middle-aged me accumulate a few votes, then I would love your vote!  You can go HERE to do that (note that the finalist badge is also in my sidebar now and is linked to the BUPA page where you can vote).  Thanks so much!

FREE STUFF!

Meanwhile, in celebration of me being a Finalist – I’m giving out FREE HUGS FOR ALL!! 
(well I’m not Oprah but if I were, it’d so be cars for sure AND free hugs!)

Ciao for now,

Linking up with Denyse Whelan Blogs for #LifeThisWeek and Sue of SIzzling Towards 60 & Beyond and Leanne of Cresting the Hill for #MLSTL (Midlife Share the Love)