It’s Our Anniversary!!!!!

Two Years!!!
It has been two years since I launched this blog! Wow!
And what incredible two years they have been.
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I set off. Infact I created the Conversations256 in 2016, wrote one post and then deleted it. I gathered enough courage to relaunch it in mid 2017!
I had to teach myself everything about WordPress (Thank you Google and YouTube)
I knew why I was starting this, but I had no idea, none! About where this was heading!
If anyone had told me, two years ago, that this site would turn into what it is today, I would have gotten irritated at them for such cracking jokes!!!
But look where we are!
Look at how much we have grown! No for real…Look below!
On WordPress, the C256 has 389 email subscribers! Email subscribers! That’s impressive eh!

The site also has a monthly readership of up to 600 consistent readers! (Screams!!!) With some coming from countries like Netherlands! Ireland! Australia! United States! Rwanda! Kenya! Germany! Netherlands! South Africa! And so many more…
I see all you. I appreciate every single one of you!
On Facebook; the C256 Page that was created late last year has a following of over 300 people! A shared post on Facebook will reach close to 460 people and have between 100-245 engagements! (More Screams!!)
On Instagram; the C256 account was created this year and currently has close to 500 followers!

I haven’t created a Twitter account for it. Yet! (Do you guys want me too?) And I’ve had suggestions from people on starting a YouTube channel! But I don’t know how I feel about being on video.
There’s a Podcast!
Yes! You heard that right.
There is a Conversation256 Podcast. I haven’t officially launched it yet to share it with all of you because it’s still in its experimental stage! But very soon, very soon we shall have a date!
I cannot wait to share it!

Now…the serious part,
On a deeper, more personal level,
I thank God with all my being for holding my hand throughout these two years!
As you read what I create on this site and what others create in the Dear Self Series, you possibly never imagine how much time and effort it takes to create every single post.

To me, many of these posts are tiny miracles. But hitting that Publish button on every single one of them still remains the largest miracle to me. It doesn’t come easy. Every time I hit ‘Publish’ I am fighting against my own natural instincts to not share, to write but stay hidden.
Sharing my work with every single one you is a blessing.

I would never have imagined the ripple effect this website would cause.
I have received many messages via email, text, face to face; with many people saying how much this site means to them. The feedback has been positively overwhelming.

This year has been phenomenal for many reasons, but it hasn’t all been easy breezy.
There have been high times as well as low times that really challenged my belief and dedication in what I am trying to do with this platform.

Some of the highs from the past two years include;
• My One Initial _ S!
As I mentioned before, I always wrote. Even before I started this website, but I never shared! Then when I started to share, I stopped owning my work. I would put up a post and never own it in any way. There was nothing to show that it was mine! Until someone whispered in my ear about the importance of owning your work, however small, however flawed it maybe; your work is still your work. And so I did. With one initial. I started to sign off every post that I wrote with the letter_S.
I have never looked back.
• The Silent Movement of Courage!
When I started this I honestly had no idea what I was doing. The only thing I was sure about was Stories. I knew we all had stories. I knew we all had depth, that we all had voices. I knew I wanted to be able to capture a person’s authenticity, voice and message…but I had no idea where to start or even how to go about the whole thing. When I reached out to people inside and outside our small community, and asked them to write letters to their younger selves, I was prepared to receive very minimal response. I was wrong! The response was overwhelming!

This series: Letters To Our Younger Selves, has slowly and silently grown into a small movement of courage here on theC256. It’s become an expression of love; from people to themselves and to the ones they’re sharing parts of themselves with. People are taking a step of courage and talking about mistakes and regret, lessons, successes and failures, heartbreak and healing, love and pain, hopelessness and the rebirth of hope, depression and joy, the growth of faith. What started as one letter has grown into a movement with close to 50 deeply personal letters that have touched and continue to touch lives.
• The Growth Of Courage
That Movement has revealed how much courage the people here have, to reveal themselves in that way, to share bits and pieces of life changing moments with complete strangers.
The entire series is based upon Courage. The courage to see, the courage to feel, the courage admit to oneself the truth of what one has seen and lived through.
We have all survived something.
We can all, with a little push, find the courage to share what we survived and how we survived it so that someone else can survive it too. And then thrive!
• The Journey of Authenticity
These two years have been a journey of authenticity.
One major revelation that I came across was that many of the things I write about here can be replicated. Anyone can steal my work. However, what they cannot steal is this;
my voice,
my courage,
my stories,
my way of storytelling,
And the way I see the world.
They cannot replicate that. Knowing that helps me sleep better at night. So whatever you do in life today, stay authentic. Not everyone will like you, but people will respect you.
• Phenomenal Support
Ahhh! (Mega Screams!!)
Guys, support from my friends and family has been invaluable. Some friends were a bit weird for the first few months but have gradually embraced what I am doing.
The feedback from the readers has been phenomenal. There is no way I could have predicted any of it. If you have sent me emails or texts of appreciation in the past, or shared my work with your friends and family, I really value that.
Thank you! Asante! Mwebale! Murakoze! Merci Beaucoup! Ndatenda! Danke! شكرا جزيلا

Okay! Enough about the highs! I’ve also had some lows! Like here;
• The Struggle with Consistency
Oh My! Let me tell you. I have struggled with this!
I don’t want to blame it on school and say that I had exams, a dissertation to write, coursework to do and on and on!
My first goal was to post three pieces of content in a week. Boy did I fail!
So I switched to two pieces of content a week! My oh My!
Anyway, I am going to do better. I will do better. I owe it to myself and to you the readers to provide you with authentic, thought-provoking, fun content. And I will!
• Collaborations???
I have never actually thought about collaborating. Because I always thought that was done by the big sites that actually consider their websites a business! But, I was wrong.
Even we small guys can collaborate! And I reached out to a very talented writer Sister Friend, (Amanda *cough) but Let’s just say the collaboration is a work in progress! (She’s going to be so annoyed I mentioned her here 🙂 😉
Enough about the lows… What about the DREAMS??

I do have dreams and goals for this. For example; Buying and owning my Domain. A Podcast
A Newsletter
Downloadable goodies for you guys
Maybe (fingers crossed) a YouTube Channel
Collaborations!!
Get a Logo!!!
Creative fun ways to engage you guys more!
Apparel! Yes, You read that right 😉 😉
________________(for whatever I will add as time goes by)
Okay…Back to the fun Part! Stats!

Total number of blog views for two years: 8872 views
Most Viewed Blog Posts: The Year Spent in Silence (781 views)
: The Silent Movement of Courage (568 views)
Number of blog posts written in two years: 76 POSTS!
Total word count for two years: 182,050 words
Countries that follow the blog: 80 Countries! (Primarily Uganda, USA, Australia, Germany, Kenya, Rwanda, Netherlands, France, Canada, India, South Africa, Philippines and United Arab Emirates) This is so crazy and cool at the same time.

I need to do more work on Social Media:
Instagram followers: 189 You can follow us here
Facebook Likes: 260 You can like us here
Okay…Now it’s your turn,
I have a ton of ideas for the blog and where I’d like to take. But…I’d like to hear your views as the audience.
What would you like to see more of?
Please tell me in the comments.
Thank you once again for continuing to read and support The Conversation256.
Quick Question:
What has been your experience of reading the blog in the last year?
Remember, in all things, Hang onto Hope,
With All My Love_S

OH! Here are My Most Popular Blog Posts (in case you missed them)

It’s Our Anniversary!!!!!

By Naks

Leaving So Soon?!