Grace's Blog Awards

Hello! My first blog for UIC Radio was posted March 8, 2024, and since then, I have made 33 posts. It's crazy to believe it's been over a year of Radio, and my time blogging here will be coming to an end. I only have one more post next week, and that will be it! Then I'll graduate, and "Grace's Blog" will be a piece of Internet history. As a sendoff to remember my time at Radio, I'm going to have a little awards show to honor the best of my blogs. Please enjoy... the Grace's Blog Awards!

Most Underrated

This award is for to the blog post that I think deserves more love. Out of all my blogs' stats, this one has the least views. I can see why this post didn't do as well some of my other ones, as it strays pretty far from what I usually cover, but I had covered one of my favorite hyperfixations so could be a little biased. And the award goes to... "The Spookiest Podcast to Listen to This Month." Sure, it's a Halloween post I dropped a week before Halloween, and I won't lie, it isn't even one of my favorite posts, but I love CreepCast and am glad I got to make a post about it. Horror is probably the most disconnected out of anything I've talked about on this blog, but I'm thankful I get to talk about my niche interests like analog horror alongside music, movies, and TV.

(Credited to CreepCast and Apple Podcasts)

Best Reflection

I've made a couple of lifestyle reflection posts. Last spring, I only made one, but last semester, I made two. I have two for this semester, unless you count this as one, so which is my favorite out of the five? It feels kind of weird to pick a favorite out of posts where I'm being more vulnerable, so I guess I'll pick the one I enjoyed writing the most. I really like my older posts for their honesty, but they have mainly been semester reflections, and I like my recent ones for being more accessible. Therefore, the award goes to... "High Aspirations and Doubts Collide." I honestly just made this post to hold myself accountable with my writing. I didn't even share it on Instagram or anything, but it ended up getting a feature! It's cool that a type of post I usually keep to myself was recognized. Maybe readers found relatability in the way I struggled with my reaching my goals? Either way, I'm thankful.

(Photo taken by me)

Best Creative Writing

Now we get into the categories I'm a bit more passionate about. I've posted a lot of creative writing here, two posts per semester, which I'm grateful to have been able to do. They're on the shorter side, but I always look forward to them as nice breaks from my usual yap fests. I've posted one poem per semester as well as one short story or prose. My favorite one would have to be Chapter 1 of my book manuscript because it was super exciting to share, but I didn't want to default call it the best. Therefore, the award goes to... "Take My Hand, Darling." It's the first poem/piece of creative writing that I posted for my blog and also happens to be the one with the most views. I wrote this poem a couple years back for a class and would say it's probably the best poem I've ever written (out of like five total). I'm not a big poem guy, but it's been fun to write new poems and show off my more typical prose here.

(Credited to The Caretaker)

Honorable Mentions

I wanted to shout out some of my favorite posts that didn't quite fit into a specific category. First, I want to mention my first post of the fall semester, "When I Go to the Club...", where I reviewed CRAZY by Le Sserafim. It holds a special place in my heart as being the first post that I promoted on Instagram. It's the only post I have made where I forgot to put the "grace" tag, which stinks because I unironically think this is one my stronger posts. I kind of popped off last semester because the next one is "Reviewing Midwest Princess in 2024," my biggest post from last semester. It took forever to make but was super fun. I love Chappell Roan and her album, and I will likely rave about "Red Wine Supernova" until the end of time. This post deserves so much love, even though my rankings have likely changed since.

Finally, I got to do a press pass opportunity with the post "Aespa Brings the Drama to Chicago With Synk: Parallel Line Tour." Have I advertised this too much? Yes. Did I post my press pass blog way too late? Also yes. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do. I had no idea how press passes worked and just thought it would be interesting to try since I had wanted to go to the concert. Everything worked out super well. I wish I could have taken better pictures and overall knew how to better post about concerts on social media, but I'm hoping to be able to do more press opporunites as a freelancer or with a publication post-grad (fingers crossed), so I will hopefully have more experience to come.

(Photos of Aespa taken by me)

Best Blog

Now, it's time for the biggest category of the night! The best blog that I have ever posted. Out of 33 whole blogs. I feel like I am being too dramatic, but I guess that's the whole idea for this post, isn't it? It's so hard to choose a favorite post, let alone the best one I've ever made. I've done so much and talked about so much music, film, TV, writing, horror, lifestyle, and more. I've gotten to talk about my favorite things on this blog, and know that I've enjoyed writing every single one. It's been such a joy to lock in once a week for a couple hours and just... write. All that aside, I think that my choice for best blog is kind of a strange pick. The award goes to... "The TikTokification of Pop Music."

This was my first post for UIC Radio and honestly the only one I feel has a true op-ed tone. It's the only one that feels like a researched, well-planned piece while all of my future blogs have just been just me yelling about things I like. This isn't a bad thing. I just think this post is objectively the best as well as the best performing out of anything I've posted. It was an effective first impression. Sure, it was one of my shorter posts and didn't have the sort of vibe I ended up retaining for my blog, but it's fun to go back and see how I started out with blogging, having absolutely no clue what I was doing or what I wanted this blog to be. It set up the foundation for a blog that has evolved and found its style since, and for that, I'll be forever grateful.

(Credited to TikTok and Business Insider)

(Credited to iStock; the coveted Grace's Blog Award)