8 People Who Made My Year

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Not that I won an award this year, but there are people who made my journey of self-discovery worthwhile. And I think gratitude is one of the best ways to acknowledge what we have in our lives. So here's the list, starting from the beginning of the year:

1. Darshan Gajara for being the tech genius in my life! My professional blog looks the way it does solely because of him. I am sure it has been challenging for him to deal with a tech novice like me but he has been patient through all my challenging, "Why is it not possible" phases! Thanks, Darshan! I am glad I found you on Twitter!

2. Ankita Dhawan, my first girl friend in Mumbai (not to confuse with all the SMW friends I mentioned in my earlier post where most are guys!) and a blogging inspiration in my life. Sweet and helpful, she was the reason I kicked myself out of my blogging lethargy and took up the 30- day blogging challenge this year. Thanks for being around, babe! Also, she's great at beauty and lifestyle blogging which solves a lot of my make-up woes! :) (check out her awesome blog here)

3. Blogchatter, the blogging community handle on Twitter that turned my blogging fortunes around when they made me the #superblogger of the week sometime in September this year. I hadn't done anything to deserve it since I wasn't really blogging much. But this brought me back to my love of blogging since I posted for 7 consecutive days that week to justify the title I was given. And the rest, as they say, is history!

4. A big thanks to my friend, RK for suggesting to me to the ideal co-working space! To find your own space in Mumbai and one that's fits your budget is next to impossible. But this place has been a gift from heaven...sorry RK! :) It's helped my productivity go off the charts and been able get some ideas up and running from that space!

5. Gratitude is also due to Milind Kher, who has been very helpful and motivating. Endless emails with him to bounce off my ideas have kept me going during some times of self doubt.

6. Social media is a mammoth to conquer and making your place in it is a herculean task. Akathmadevi, the social media dynamite, has been my go-to source for a lot of concepts I couldn't understand and had questions about. She has always been kind and found the time to help me out on phone, msgs or even Skype! Thanks, darling! Couldn't have done it without you!

7. I believe that selfless deeds are the ones that have kept goodness in this world alive. And how could I forget my #FF and RT angels from Twitter. Thank you, Kunjal Kamdar for all the #FFs over the recent months when I needed them and Gurudutt Kamath for the RT sprees! I also want to thank everyone who went out and RTd my tweets to share information even though they did not have to!

8. Not to sound too cliched but credit is definitely due to my better half who's made everything in my life possible! Not just this year, but all the years I have been with him have been awesome times of learning to believe in myself, exploring my passions and stepping out of my comfort zones knowing that he's around to cover me for blunders I might make in the process! :)

This post turned out to be longer than I thought! But bear with me for a couple of more minutes. The year would not have been this awesome without all the people who decided to follow me on Twitter, like my FB page and encourage me to keep at it. I also met wonderful people like Vishal Kataria, Mitu Samar and Ajay Kontham, my Twitter friends, in person. I also made new friends on Twitter and I look forward to knowing them better next year.

Can you think of people who made a difference to you this year? Even if it is just one person, make an effort to thank them! No one? Hug your mom! You probably did not realise but she has been the only selfless person caring about you all year long! :)