There I was seated on my couch nursing an annoying evening that had given an ache to some random parts of my being. I decided to pass some time scrolling through twitter as I waited for sleep to take me on. As I begin scrolling, my eyes land on a community of writers (bloggers) that I subscribe to called Afrobloggers. They were announcing the opening of some awards that I came to understand were the “Afrobloggers awards 2020”. Over 140 bloggers had been nominated in different categories including vloggers, podcasts, tech bloggers, food bloggers, family bloggers, personal bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, business bloggers, wellbeing bloggers, news and entertainment bloggers and critical social bloggers. I smiled to myself and thought it was such an undeniably incredible opportunity to be nominated. The thought of me being on the list was no where in the picture. I knew for a fact that there is no where in this world that I could possibly be even thought of to be selected in the pool of hundreds of amazing writers in the whole of Africa. There is no way. I argued with my brain as it prompted to just check. My palpitations began as I run through all the categories. All the while I was saying to myself that there is no way I can be on this list and towards the end I see a category, “Food and Drink” and there I see my blog name. I just could not believe what I was seeing. I even refreshed my phone just in case my mind was playing games and I had began hallucinating. I jumped, turned all over the house, made muffled screams of joy as it was late in the night and also had some inner emotional cries. (Juliana the tears refused to roll haha)
Immediately I created a post to share the good news with friends and family and to seek for their support as well. The amount of support I have received over time is one I sure was not ready for. I write this on the day of the deadline and I can never be anymore proud and thankful to everyone who has supported me and pushed me to keep writing even when I was dragging myself. When I opened my website last year in this exact month I had no idea that one day I would appear in any awards. I am super super thankful.
To the brains behind Afrobloggers, thank you for promoting Africa’s emerging voices. The blocks that you have added to my journey will never be forgotten. To all stakeholders who have taken their time to vote, support, congratulate but most importantly read and share my content, I thank you. May the good Lord bless you for me.
Lastly to my mother who will probably never understand what this is all about I am grateful still for all and of course to God who has continued to give me this opportunity to share with the world this talent he has given. May the best person in every category of these awards win.