It seems like an age since I sat in front of a keyboard and wrote an actual blog post, but that is probably because it has been. I don’t even remember the last time I tapped away and actually spoke about something rather than just relaying facts, so I thought it was time to do some blogging and reflect.

2017 was a strange one for me, in some respects I feel I did quite well and achieved in my goals I set out at the start of the year, in other respects I really didn’t. I am proud of what I did last year even if it wasn’t a year that came across overly productive in my blog.

So let’s go through those goals and see how I did:

First off there is a big difference in my goal for followers and likes to where I actually got, but I’m not ashamed of that. Yes I set out for 1000, that was probably a bit optimistic considering I didn’t even have 100 on any platform in 2016. By the end of 2017 I had 297 Facebook likes, 167 Twitter followers and 92 Instagram followers (not much growth there but we’ll come back to that).

There is growth and week on week I was getting new likes and new followers, the fact that I didn’t get to 1000 doesn’t bother me in the slightest because those people who have chosen to click that follow or like button mean the world to me.

100 views per YouTube video. Um, yeah again, didn’t quite get there BUT some of my videos have over 300 views and I’ve reached a total of over 1000 views on my channel which means a lot to me.

I didn’t do a vlog for every Grand Prix and I didn’t write three blog posts per week, however I did start creating more video content and did have videos out pretty consistently. If you watched a certain video I made in the summer you will understand why I didn’t write three blog posts per week.

Finally I reach one where I’m immensely proud, I set the goal to live tweet every Grand Prix, now I couldn’t do every one because it wasn’t logistically possible but I live tweeted a hell of a lot and you all seemed to enjoy it. Live tweeting is what I love to do and it brings me a lot of joy so I’m glad I set that goal.

Another goal which I set was to go to a D2BD event, of course I did this one, I vlogged the day and met one of my inspirations Jennie Gow. It was an amazing day and if you’d like to see what I got up to you can check out the vlog here.

A goal that I set which I wasn’t sure I’d reach was interviewing a driver and I did get two, even though it wasn’t something published on my blog. As part of an assessment for my degree I wrote a feature on whether motorsport was the cleanest sport in the world. I managed to interview Jack Drinkall and came very close to interviewing a Formula 1 driver (we’ll leave an air of mystery around that).

Due to university and being a penny pincher I didn’t manage to a race but hopefully I’ll be going to a Grand Prix to celebrate my graduation this year.

Finally, be published again. Technically I was published every week on Truthfal apart from this I wasn’t published. I did do some writing for Formula Life which they loved but unfortunately the magazine came to an end before it could be published.

So, like I said, a mixed bag this year. I did much more within my degree that blew my mind (because I really didn’t think I’d be able to deliver) and I’ll talk about that in my next post where I will talk about what I hope to achieve this year as well.

For now though, thank you for your continued support and I hope you’ll join me on my final few months of university and what ever comes after.