Happy Birthday PCME!

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Well, it's been one year since I started this blog. It's grown and evolved and frankly, it saved my life. It gave me purpose when I was lost.

After finishing school I moved back in with my parents to get back on my feet and I didn't quite know what to do. What I did do was spend a lot of time in front of screens, whether it was my looking at my phone, laptop, or TV. After being away from Saudi for so long, I shouldn't have been surprised to find that things had changed. There were ads on TV urging viewers to drink water or walk more as part of a health campaign. There was a YouTube video of young men dancing to "Turn Down For What" in Iran. There were news articles about a young man in a hospital that had turned viral. I had a couple friends around and when I told them about what I saw, they had no idea what I was talking about. And so I created Pop Culture Middle East as a place where I could share what I found. Since then it has developed into a place where I write posts on art galleries that I visit and on interviews I conduct with influential figures in the modern culture(s) of this part of the world I call home.

I feel that my top posts reflects that shift:

1. Dark Turns, YouTube and Laughing At Old White People: Navigating Comedy and Online Fame with Hisham Fageeh
2. Arab rap and Saudi Arabia's first hip hop radio show host: No booty shaking culture here
3. Be happy, Live More... Easy enough right?
4. What happens when urban goes corporate
5. Dior every day: How women's shoes in Saudi say a whole lot more than you think

I want to thank all of my readers and everyone else that has supported my blog. Thank you for clicking on my links. Thank you for advocating for calling me a blogger before I even thought of myself as one. Thank you for staying up with me on the late nights when I wondered if what I was writing was too controversial. Thank you for helping me grow as a writer and as a person. I love you all for giving me your feedback and for sharing my work, and for helping me find myself again. I look forward to the future and to what this blog can be. I hope you'll join me and continue to read about pop culture in the Middle East.