A Self-Reflection On My 3 Years With BAYOG: THANK YOU

Hello BAYOG fam!~ Today is a bit of a more personal post. It’s been 3 years since I became a part of the BAYOG Crew and started blogging. There’s been alot of change and growth for both the blog, and for me on a personal level. Black & Yellow Otaku Gamers has honestly come so far. This blog, the community, and the people I’ve met have become so dear to me. So I just wanted to reflect on this journey I’ve been on thanks to this blog, as well as to thank you all. It might be a tad long, but I wanted to also leave it as something for my future-self to look back and reflect on one day as well~ I also just wanted to show you all how incredibly thankful I am to you as well!

The Beginning|How I Joined BAYOG

I kind of previously covered BAYOG’s origin and my beginning as a blogger in the [Blogger Recognition Awards 2020 post]. But if you didn’t know, I was not originally a part of the BAYOG Crew. BAYOG began as a project amongst my friends that y’all know and love: Kenny/Blackatron (@blackandyellowog ), Nick/Rokutsu (@rokutsu ), Loha/Loheezy (@loheezy ), Marc/cmdrcluckcluck ( @cmdrcluckcluck ), and their friend Dave/Sinmadaura (@daromcmillan ). They started Black & Yellow Otaku Gamers as a little project back around 2016-2017. I honestly didn’t know too much about it, but they had my support nonetheless. Then one day I saw that they posted that they were looking for some help.

I offered some help in a half-joking way. I didn’t think I’d ever really be very helpful for several reasons:

• I barely watched anime anymore.
• I barely read manga anymore.
• I barely game.
• I suck at gaming.
• I lived more in real people stuffs land. I was more about Asian dramas/movies and music.
• I didn’t think I’d be capable of writing anything interesting.

So imagine my surprise when I immediately got a message from Nick, as well as from Kenny. Thus, I spontaneously and officially joined BAYOG on November 27, 2017. My first post was on the [Yuusha Yoshihiko drama] back on December 6, 2017.

I think the plan was that I would just help every now and then. I didn’t know anything about blogging. I wasn’t sure if I would be any good or of any actual help. But I wanted to help the bros, and at least give them a break in between their posts. It was also a way for me to kill time too. I didn’t think I’d be all that invested. Still, I guess I was fired up because back then I basically finished and scheduled several posts at a time. I think at one point I planned out a whole month or two of posts. I was doing pretty well too? Because back then I regularly posted every Sunday, and I’d post more that week if I had the time for it.

Like I said before, I didn’t really think I had much to bring to the blog or be helpful in anyway. Still, I figured I could just do topics I was familiar with, and perhaps it would help expand BAYOG’s demographic. Thus, I became BAYOG’s Real People Stuff expert who covered mostly live action movies and dramas. I also occasionally covered the more shoujo kind of anime and manga series. Although, I did cover some other genres on occasion as well. The bros gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted. So over time I also expanded it to other things like music, food, travel, and webtoons. I also just kind of made my style of blogging to be just be very chill, genuine, and casual. I wanted to be genuine, to comfortably be myself. I wanted my posts to be like how I would discuss things with friends.

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A Personal Journey & Goal

During this time, I was struggling very badly with stress, anxiety, and depression. The things and people I loved most made me feel suffocated. I hit the darkest days I had ever been through. Those who knew me, knew me to bright and happy. However, I was also one who kept to myself. I didn’t like to talk about my thoughts and feelings. I had a hard time relying on people emotionally like that. So I eventually got to a point where I broke and it was almost too late. However, the blog gave me an outlet. It was through the blog that I finally addressed my struggles, since writing my thoughts out was much easier than talking about it. I revealed it in a [blog post about a webtoon] I was covering that involved mental health. After feeling broken, I reached an epiphany and set out on a journey to try to love myself more. Mental health is something I find to be very important. So it’s something I’ve covered alot to not only heal and comfort myself, but also bring [comfort] to others who were struggling. I know the struggle, and how hard it is to reach out. However, there’s comfort in knowing that you’re not alone and that someone else is also going through the same journey and struggles as you are. The bros have always been very kind and supportive of me during my time of struggle. I’m also so very thankful they’ve freely allowed me to use the blog as an outlet for myself and a platform to bring comfort to others.

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Expanding My World With New Connections

Now let me tell you all something… I’m an introvert and pretty awkward. I’m hella socially awkward too. I like to think I’m friendly, but I’m more on the shy side. So it takes me a while to muster up the courage to talk to and get comfortable with other people. I’m the type that can be friends with most people, but I typically have a small circle of close friends that I’m really comfortable with and talk to often. However, due to some family circumstances I now live in a whole other state away from my friends. I’m pretty isolated, because I just help run the family business. I don’t have friends here, and I don’t socialize here. I don’t even go out anywhere unless it’s for errands. I’m just always working and caring for my family. So I don’t get to really see my friends except for maybe 2-3 times a year when I go back to my hometown or go on a rare trip with them. Thus, I’m even more socially awkward than I was years ago… I am happy that I can still talk to my friends often through messages, and hang out with them online. However, I’m still prone to feeling a bit lonely at times. However, I’ve found myself less lonely because of blogging. Through the blog I’ve been able to meet so many new people. At first, I had a weird complex where I wasn’t sure I could be considered a part of the blogging community. While I posted alot, I wasn’t sure if I could be considered a blogger. I was also terrible with social media (still am). So I was afraid to make friends with other bloggers. Especially because everyone seemed so established and serious about blogging. Meanwhile, I just rant about different things. I also questioned if I had the right to be a part of the aniblogging community because I didn’t really cover anime and manga as much as everyone else. Again, I was more on music, dramas, and webtoons at this point. Nearly 3 years later, I finally started considering myself a blogger. It was during this pandemic that I finally tried to follow and befriend other bloggers. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming. I truly mean it when I say I’m so incredibly happy and excited to have made new friends. Seriously. Ask my besties. I literally talk about all my new friends excitedly like a child who’s bragging to their mom about their new friends haha.

I’m really grateful to fellow bloggers like [Neha @ Biblionyan ]. They’ve been so warm and welcoming since when I first started blogging. I’ve had many fun discussions with them, and they’re one of the reasons I’m able to enjoy blogging. I’m also thankful to my other old and new friends like [Irina @ I Drink & Watch Anime], [Rise From Ashes @ Phoenix Talks Pop Culture in Japan], [Moya @ Moyatorium], [Rose @ Wretched & Divine], [Nabe-chan @ Geeknabe], [Elle @ Of Midnight Ravings], [Takuto @ Takuto’s Anime Cafe], and [Emiko @ Ramblings ‘N Scribbles]. I’ve enjoyed talking to them, becoming friends, and readings their blogs. They’ve been so welcoming and given me support and enjoyment to continue blogging.

Again, I’m actually a pretty shy, introverted, and socially awkward person. Still, I try my best to be more friendly online. Plus, I really do enjoy reading comments and getting to know you all. To be honest though, I don’t really expect that many people to read my posts or try to interact with me. Still, I always try to show that I’m friendly and open to making friends. Thus, I always end my posts with friendly notes, telling readers to be friends with me, and to chat with me in the BAYOG Discord server or my socials. However, people usually don’t reach out to me through my socials, and we never really had anyone join the Discord server. I sincerely mean it, but I also never really expect people to do it. However, our blog has grown beyond expectations since the beginning of the pandemic. In recent months, I’ve been very surprised to be reached out to on my socials like IG or my BAYOG email! For the first time, people have joined our BAYOG server too! Although, everyone seems to be on the shy side and lurking~ hehe~ Still, I’ve really enjoyed making friends and having fun discussions with some of our readers! It was honestly a huge surprise. I’m super surprised and flattered that there are people out there who enjoy the content we put out. However, I’m more surprised that people find me interesting and actually want to be friends with me! Y’all got my feeling hella touched. I’m truly honored you think I’m interesting to be friends with. I’m also so thankful for your support with our humble blog.

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Growth and Changes

The blog has been through alot of changes. This was originally a blog where the bros discussed anime, manga and gaming. With my addition to the team, we tried to envision the goals we each had for BAYOG. We’ve since been trying to reach those goals. With my addition, we also tried to diversify our content to reach other demographics as well. Thus, we also added more posts on live action movies and dramas. The BAYOG Bros were also incredibly kind and supportive to allow me total freedom to do whatever I wanted. Despite not originally being a part of BAYOG, they made it clear that BAYOG is as much my baby as it is theirs. I started covering other Real People Stuff like travel, food, and music. I also started covering webtoons. Since the pandemic hit, I also started to cover novels too.

BAYOG had been slowly growing since when we first started. I remember when we were excited when we were in double or triple digits for one day or the weekend. I remember how ecstatic we were to hit 1k or more views for the month. We were hella excited that we reached 12.5k views in August 2018. However that’s when we were all caught up in alot of things and couldn’t post as much. We were all caught up with work/school and/or were dealing with personal things. I personally also struggled with burnout and lack of motivation.

Then the COVID pandemic hit. The majority of my family is immunocompromised. So we ended up temporarily closing our restaurant business for about 6 months. So of course I had alot of free time now. This is when I started watching tons of online concerts. I finally had time for myself. I had more time to fangirl. I also had more time to read manga and webtoons. I also got into novels. Because I had so much free time, I was also able to blog more. I figured I would try to keep the ship afloat since I knew the bros were busy dealing with other things. During quarantine for the pandemic, the views on our blog increased. Which was expected since everyone was quarantining and didn’t have much to do. However, I was pretty surprised at how much the views increased. It steadily increased 1-2k more a month. I figured it would start to slow down once things started to reopen and people started adapting to the new normal. To my surprise we kept growing even more?! More than the beginning of the pandemic??

While a sort of increase is expected, the amount we increased was just unfathomable and beyond our expectations. A year ago, prior to the pandemic, we would hit around 3-4k views a month. However, as the pandemic started, we started to hit the ten thousands! In October we had nearly 5k more views than September! We’re now about to hit 18k, possibly more, for November??! We’ve hit over 104k views for the year, and the year isn’t even over yet! It’s truly beyond anything we would have ever expected.

I’ve gone through some other changes as well. I’ve become a bit more outgoing (just a bit). One of my more obvious changes is my level and display of fangirling. So I used to be a more subtle and chill fangirl…

However, I just really get into it when blogging. The blog made me way too comfortable lolol I think I’ve also gotten way more into it while quarantining/social distancing in this pandemic… lolol I’m pretty certain I’ve become known as the overzealous fangirl blogger. Not really sure how I feel about it, but if it keeps you all entertained… I’m fine with it haha~

It’s funny. I had joined Black & Yellow Otaku Gamers in the spur of the moment. I never thought I’d really be into blogging, or that I’d be good at it. I thought I’d just be helping out on occasion. I didn’t think I’d really get that invested in the blog. However, I now enjoy blogging alot. It’s something that’s become a big part of my life, and it’s become incredibly dear to me. Through this blog I’ve been able to explore and delve more into the things I enjoy. It gave me an outlet and comfort in the times where I was in a really bad mental place. It helped me navigate through my struggles and bring comfort to other people. It also gave me a productive hobby that I actually enjoy. The blog has had other positive effects on me as well.

It’s been key to my journey to love myself. I’ve become more expressive. Mentally, I’m in a much better place. My self-esteem and confidence has increased. I’ve learned alot of new things and found new hobbies. I’ve gotten closer to my BAYOG Bros. I’ve also expanded my small world and made several new friends from all over the place. It may seem silly, but I do talk about the blog alot. It’s become my baby, and it’s something I’m so incredibly proud about. 3 years have passed by so quickly. Honestly, after writing this… I’m surprised that there had been more changes than I realized it. This blog, the bros, my new friends, and the readers… you all have helped me change so much in such a positive way.

It’s been an amazing 3 years of struggles, growth, change, and fond memories. I truly mean it when I’m so incredibly thankful to you all. I’m so thankful that the bros brought me on to the team. Thank you for giving me the chance to be a part of something. Thank you all for all the fun and dear moments. Thank you for helping me and this blog grow so much in the past 3 years. Thank you for making me a better version of myself. I promise to continue to grow and change. I also promise to continue this journey of loving myself as well as this journey of being a blogger. I promise to continue to work hard to bring you fun content. Again, thank you for helping me grow, and thank you for helping this humble blog of ours grow beyond any of our expectations. I’m truly thankful to you all, and I love you all so very much!~ Until next time, take care, stay safe, have a wonderful day, and enjoy your holiday!~

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LET’S BE FRIENDS!~ (つ✧ω✧)つ

Hihi! I’m Minty! I’m Thai-American~ เป็นคนไทยค่ะ~ ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักนะคะ~
I’m BAYOG’s hella basic Asian chick, Real People Stuffs expert, and boba addict. I’ve been a part of the BAYOG Crew since 2017~ I fangirl and mostly blog about music, live action movies/dramas, manga/webtoons, and occasionally webnovels~ When I’m not blogging, I’m usually writing/singing Thai-English covers~

It’s nice to meet all of you lovely people from around the world! Thanks for stopping by our blog!~
💜• ขอบคุณค่ะ • ありがとうございます • 감사합니다 • 谢谢你 • Salamat Po •💜

Wanna Buy Boba/Coffee For Your Bobae?☕ (´｡• ω •｡`) 💜: [Ko-Fi]
Feel free to buy me bubble tea/milk tea/coffee if you’d like. I’m always sleep deprived, and I’ll forever appreciate your kindness~

Let’s Be Friends On SNS! 💜(♡°▽°♡)
Let’s talk memes, music, dramas, movies, spoilers, or fan spazz!~
I also sing and write lyrics~ You can hit me up on my socials or Discord. I’m always happy to make friends~ For questions or business inquiries, contact me through my BAYOG email~
[Twitter] | [Instagram] | [YouTube] | [Cardd]
Contact: BAYOGMinty@gmail.com | Discord: piecesofminty#0182

Dramas I’ve Watched/Am Watching 🎞️: [DramaList]
My Music Playlists/What I’m Listening To🎧: [Spotify]

JOIN THE BAYOG FAM (つ≧▽≦)つ 🎮🎞️
We share and chat lots of stuff on Discord, and we’re on other platforms too!
Don’t forget to say hi in the Discord server so I can properly welcome you~
[Discord Server] | [YouTube]| [Twitch] | [Facebook]| [Podcasts @ Spotify]
Follow the BAYOG Bros Too!🎮
They all good people! These your guys for anime, manga, and games!
[Kenny – Blackatron] | [Nick – Rokutsu]
[Marc – cmdrcluckcluck] | [Loha – Loheezy]

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BE SAFE. BE RESPONSIBLE.
WASH YOUR HANDS. WEAR A MASK.
SOCIAL DISTANCE. PLEASE.

Take care y’all. Please stay safe and take care of yourself. All jokes and fun aside…please, please, please, pleaaaase always wash your hands, practice social distancing, and wear a mask! It’s better to be cautious than face irrevocable consequences of health complications or death.

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BLACK LIVES MATTER

AS A GROUP OF BIPOC, BAYOG strongly stands with Black Lives Matter. We are all too familiar with the racism that we, our friends, and family have faced on a daily basis. Every life is precious. However, as BIPOC, we also recognize that black people are a group of people that face extreme racism and at a higher risk for their safety. We’ve individually done several donations. Of course, donations to support the cause and support change isn’t the only thing needed. Support for the cause and change also requires conversation and understanding. Make sure to have those conversations. Please remember to be an active supporter, be it through donations, sharing information, and/or conversations and speaking up.

If you can, please consider donating. I’ve donated more than once as well. For one of my donations, I donated through the BTS ARMY x BLM project. I recommend that if you’re unsure of where to donate. This is because the donation will be split amongst several different non-profit organizations. Of course, you can also choose a specific organization(s) if you wish as well. You can find that [HERE].

You can also check out the following:

• http://blmsites.carrd.co
• http://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co
• http://blackliveswillalwaysmatter.carrd.co
• http://blmstanguide.carrd.co
• http://saytheirnames.carrd.co
• http://useyourvoice.carrd.co

Stay strong. Fight racism, brutality, injustice, and bullshit. Don’t lose sight of the goal. We’re witnessing and being a part of history. Be allies and make sure change happens. Once again, BLACK LIVES MATTER.