04 Jan A New Year’s Post.

It’s been a good year.

I secured a new home, found an amazing new boyfriend, “officially” graduated from NYU, did a lot of traveling, got some great work experience, and finally became a real adult.

(Sure, I did have my Crohn’s come back after 10 years, but who hasn’t? Am I right??)

But seriously, despite that little blip in the year, it’s all around been pretty great.

Especially for Uncover Ostomy. Seriously. And here are the numbers to prove it!

Since January 1st, 2013:

We’ve had exactly 44,247 new people visit the Uncover Ostomy website.

We’ve had 118,433 website page views.

We’ve reached 148 countries, including Sweden, the Philippines, Turkey, the Bahamas, Malaysia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Cyprus, and even Uzbekistan (to just name a few…)

We’ve gotten over 1,400 new fans on the Facebook Page.

Posts on the Facebook page have accumulated a total of over 1.2 million impressions.

And the Facebook page has seen over 11,200 user interactions (that’s you guys!)

…And this is just some of the stats. Seriously. Amazing!

I know I say this all the time, but I sincerely attribute all of these stats to you. You guys are the ones who support the campaign, who share the campaign, and who live and breathe the values the campaign works to spread! Without you, this wouldn’t be possible.

So what would be a new year without a New Year’s resolution, or two?

Personally, my NY’s Resolutions are pretty simple. They include finding a new job (I’m currently on the hunt), exercising more, paying more attention to my health, and being happy. Nothing too crazy, but will make a huge impact on my life in 2014.

But how can we make a huge impact on ostomy stigma in 2014? I have a few ideas, and I hope you can help:

1. Sharing more blog posts: Let’s keep on doing what we’ve been doing since Oct 2009! Like something I’ve written, send it out to your friends and family!
2. Sharing more Facebook posts: Facebook has tweaked their background settings so that Page posts don’t show up as often as they used to. The more fans who share the Page’s posts, the more likely other users who don’t follow the Page will see them!
3. Use Twitter more: I recently started up the #UncoverOstomy hashtag on Twitter. Everytime you tweet something that has to do with your ostomy, or about the campaign, include that hashtag in the tweet. It will be added to this list: Tweets about “#UncoverOstomy” that I can track and respond to, and will allows others to engage with you as well.
4. Take more pictures in UO tshirts: I will be doing this, and I hope you’ll join me, in taking more pictures wearing the UO tshirts in public. Once you do, post them to your Facebook profile, Twitter, and the Uncover Ostomy page so we can create more positive content to share. Sharing these pictures on social media will continue to spread positive ostomy awareness! (There will be more tshirt sales, just hang tight!)
5. Speaking: If you’re part of a community or organization that you believe would benefit from having me speak about Uncover Ostomy, send me a message and let’s set it up!
6. Hangouts: Since Uncover Ostomy is a worldwide campaign, it’s hard for us to all get together. I’m hoping that by running Google Hangouts (video conferences), we can have a chance to get together, chat, and support. (Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in!)
7. Contests: What fun is an online community without contests? There will be more…

Think we can handle these? I do.

So while I continue to look for a job after having just come back from the gym I can only hope that 2014 brings only good things.

The other day, a friend of mine said she could feel that this would be the best year yet. Let’s make it so.