On 16 January 2015, I began a new chapter in my life. On that day, I wouldn't have believed that I would still be on this journey nearly three years later, never mind imagine the experiences and opportunities that I was given along the way. However, after a very, very long period of reflection and decision making, I have finally come to the conclusion that it is time to close this chapter, but I didn't want to stop clarabellasecrets without any form of explanation, as I imagine that there are a fair few of you loyal readers who are disappointed with my decision.

Last month, I wrote a post called 'A New Direction' where I revealed that I was becoming bored of the content that I was publishing on my blog and decided to change it into a complete lifestyle branded site, rather than the 'fashion, beauty and lifestyle' niche that I had used ever since 2015. I thought that this was the reason for my lack of passion. Although I had an initial spark and was full of ideas at the prospect of 'a new direction', I quickly lost my motivation to write again. 

Since starting university in September 2016, my lifestyle has completely changed. I have matured, become more independent, and overall, I am continuously changing as a person. For my loyal readers who have read my blog since the beginning, this should make more sense to you as you have seen my growth for two years. Although I once had a passion for writing my blog, I knew it wasn't going to last forever as its not secret that people do change. An example of this is that I started my course with the aspiration to do fashion journalism, but now have a passion for PR and marketing. Maybe in a years time, months time, or even weeks time, I might want to do something else. Who knows? But isn't that what keeps life so exciting? Starting new chapters, changing directions and not knowing where you are going to end up.

Any blogger who works or studies full time will also agree with me that it is very difficult to balance a blog on top of daily commitments. It astounds me when I find people who work so hard to be able to do it all. It's no joke that bloggers are very underrated hard workers who should definitely be given more credit for what they do as a lot of unseen work goes on behind the pretty posts and pictures. I personally found it very difficult to keep on top alongside my university work, which is why you will notice a drop in the amount of posts since I started my course. I make sure that all of my effort goes into ensuring that I come out of university with the degree that I worked so hard to be able to do. However, without my blog, I doubt I would have chosen this course and be on the path that I have created for myself, so I am very much grateful for that. I always say 'everything happens for a reason'.

I should also mention that although I am closing this chapter, I am not closing down the site and my blog will still be live on the internet for all to see as I hope that my posts will still be valuable for those who stumble across it in the future. However, the domain name will change and go back to the one that blogspot provides as I see no use in continuing to pay for my own. It's also a nice reminder of the memories and experiences that I have shared with my readers over these past two years that I can always look back on and reminisce over. I will also look back on clarabellasecrets as a great achievement. Without bursting my own bubble, I am very proud of the time, effort and hard work that I put into something that I was very passionate about. I am very proud of clarabellasecrets and I am very proud of myself, so of course, I still want the world to see what I created.

This post is a little longer than I expected it to be, so before I babble on anymore, I want to end by thanking all my readers for the time that you have given to read my blog over the two years, as well as the support that I have received which allowed clarabellasecrets to grow and reach out to the amount of followers that it did. My aim for clarabellasecrets was to help as many people as I could in some way or another, and I truly believe that I achieved that.

Thank you x