Hello! How have you all been? I know, I’ve totally been MIA as of late, and I confess that this absence has mostly been due to the fact that I started school! The fall semester actually began mid-August, but I had to go to a weeklong orientation prior to school officially starting since I’m technically a first year again. My classes are definitely a lot more rigorous and challenging in pharmacy school compared to undergrad, but I’m also really enjoying it; I can’t complain despite the stress.
In addition to school, I’ve also been away because, well, I haven’t read anything. I’m still in a major reading slump (yes, it’s still from my The Wrath and the Dawn duology book hangover). And my Goodreads widget indicates that I am about 50 pages into Six of Crows and reading several engrossing manga (ReLife and Blue Spring Ride), which is a little outdated now seeing as I picked them up earlier in the month. They did help battle the slump then… However, I haven’t had time since returning to school to actually continuing these titles. In short, I’m not reading anything.
I’m finally facing a dilemma that I feared would happen: I can’t easily fit in reading and blogging into my schedule. I tried to compromise and only do it on the weekends… but with work and catching up with things I put off during the week (academic reading, lab work, volunteering, additional extracurriculars, etc), it was pretty impossible to designate as much of my time to reading and blogging as I used to when I was an undergrad student. In June’s Summing It Up post (and actually back in 2015 with the Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag), I anticipated that this would eventually occur during my entry of graduate/professional school… but it still feels quite sad that I’ve actually reached this point and realization.
But it’s not a goodbye really. Because knowing me, I don’t like to take true blogging hiatuses and I definitely can’t see myself completely giving up Xingsings just yet.
I’m not sure what direction Xingsings will be taking in the future, but I want to convey my appreciation to everyone that has been along this amazing blogging journey thus far. All of you have always showed great warmth and support for me and my blog, and I’m so grateful for those moments and the friendships I have gained. Like mentioned, this isn’t a permanent departure from blogging, but I know I won’t be able to keep up with everyone as I’d like to. However, I hope that we will keep in touch in the future even if I’m not as active in the blogosphere. 😀
xingsings 