Top Lucky Moments I’m Grateful For in January 2023 

For this year, I’ve decided to tweak my blogging monthly reviews in line with my word for the year: LUCKY. 

I’m going to be doing a recap every month of my top lucky moments as a way to not only stay grateful but also track my progress.

Usually I’m decisive when it comes to my theme or word of the year, but when 2023 began, I was lost. 

I had no inkling of what theme or word I wanted my year to focus on. All I knew is that I wanted 2023 as my most successful year yet as a content creator and my best financial year too. 

But in the past years I’d already used some variation of the word success or financial abundance so I didn’t want to repeat it. 

This year, however, I found my theme when I stumbled upon a video on my Tiktok discover feed about “the lucky girl syndrome” and I instantly felt magnetized to this concept. 

To summarize it, it’s about believing you are so lucky and to constantly tell yourself, “I’m so lucky everything is working out for me.” 

For the first time in a loooong time, I felt it. I felt those words that YES I AM LUCKY. The Universe always has my back and no matter what things will work out!! 

I kept seeing more and more videos on my fyp feed about the lucky girl syndrome and women sharing their success stories, and it just instantly clicked in my head: I’d found my word of the year: LUCK.

And I felt giddy just saying. As if it’s already true. 

In the past, I did tell myself a lot I was lucky and it’s true I had very lucky experiences throughout the years especially when it came to the timing of things: I got to see my favorite rock bands growing up for free because I’d landed a role as a writer/photographer for an online publication, I met Billy Martin (someone I really admired and had a crush on back then!!) by coincidence when I was in 7th grade, I received a full scholarship in University, I got to study Creative Writing summer course in Oxford after university, and just last year I got a rose from my ultimate KPop crush Cha Eunwoo.

So yeah, looking back, I am lucky, but sometimes I forget it especially when times got tough and I’d somehow slowly lost that spark. 

But those lucky girl syndrome videos ignited something in me. Hope. Excitement. Faith. Anticipation. 

I figured what did I have to lose just by trying it out? I started with the affirmations first and started saying it throughout the day. 

And it really, really worked. 

I’m still AMAZED, but not that surprised because I have this belief now that everything is working in my favor. 

I’d tried manifestation for years and sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t. This time around, it’s different because it’s like a perspective shift and rewiring or awakening of a core belief deep inside. 

So since trying it out the first week of January, so many amazing things have already happened, which is what I want to share with you here in the hopes of inspiring you to also try out the lucky girl or lucky boy syndrome. 

And to hopefully show you that it is possible!! 

Welcoming the new year in a fresh, exciting way 

I celebrated the New Year at the beach and in a totally new experience. Usually we just stay home, but this time we were at the beach with family and relatives. 

But I’d also like to think that the LUCK started before midnight because around 2 hours before midnight, I had sold 3 copies of The Hush Society Presents after a few months of no sales. 

This year I want to focus on selling more copies of my book and getting more reviews on Amazon! 

I got to do UGC for a company 

A company hired me to do UGC content for them at the start of the year and just when I decided to make it one of my goals to land more UGC projects. 

I realised that I’d been doing UGC before there was even a term for it, but mostly for writing projects. Now though my UGC content is both writing and content creation. 

I covered ITZY’s press event in Glorietta 

When I saw that ITZY was going to Glorietta, I wanted to go; however, the tickets sold out in less than 2 hours so I wasn’t able to get a ticket. 

I’d resigned that maybe I would see them next time, but the Universe had other plans. I was contacted to cover the press event so I got access. It was so magical!!

The lucky girl syndrome was really working. 

I made two Tiktok dance challenges and one of them did really well

I’d seen that one way to promote a song and artist is through a Tiktok dance challenge.

I’m sure you’ve seen the Taylor Swift Bejeweled dance all over the internet, so I thought why not do the same but to help promote Astro?

So when Moon Bin and Sanha released a new album this January 4, I made a dance challenge for their songs Chup Chup and Your Day because those were some of my favourite songs. 

The Chup Chup dance challenge clicked and a number of people joined.

I was so happy about that. The goal is to do the Chup Chup dance challenge with Moon Bin and Sanha in March 2023.

I got a reply from one of the Xeed members

One of the new KPop groups I became a fan of is Xeed. They debuted just this December 2022.

In January, one of the members started answering fan replies on Twitter, so I thought I’d join in and ask a question.

I didn’t think I would since it took a while but it seems he was really taking the time to reply to as many as he could, and I saw he replied to me!

Unfortunately, a few days later the company released a statement that this member had left Xeed due to personal reasons. I hope he’s okay. 

Simple Plan replied to my comment on Tiktok 

I’m on a roooooll.

Simple Plan was one of my favourite bands as a teen so when they replied to my comment on one of their Tiktok videos, I was in shock.

TEENAGE IZZY IS SHAKING. A dream come true.

I remember hoping for something like this back during Myspace days. 

Almost all my Tiktok videos I posted this month went viral 

LUCKY GIRL SYNDROME INDEED. And to think, the last few months of last year I was struggling with views. I was stuck at around 500-1000 views, but this month so many videos got thousands of views. 

However one of the videos got some negativity because some people weren’t understanding my caption correctly.

I almost made the video private cause I started freaking out that this was happening and I tend to avoid conflict.

But instead of doing that, I decided to face it head on and sit with what made me uncomfortable and I replied to every comment clarifying my point.

And thank goodness I did because then people realised their mistake and a couple of people even defended me. 

I grew my Tiktok by 60% in a month 

One thing I didn’t expect was to grow my Tiktok account by almost 2,000 followers in one month.

All because almost every video would get thousands of views.

I hope to grow my Instagram by this much too! Though I’m off to a good start too on Instagram because one of the videos I posted got over 10,000 views and attracted a couple new followers too.

And in one day, I gained almost 1,000 subscribers too! 

Moon Bin and Sanha announced they are coming to Manila 

I had a feeling this was coming but I was still so shocked and so, so excited when it happened.

First was Cha Eunwoo’s fan meeting last year and this year, I have Moon Bin and Sanha to look forward to in March. 

I celebrated Moon Bin Day with one of my Aroha besties

I’m so happy I got to hang out with one of my Aroha besties, Kyla! The last time we saw each other was during Eunwoo’s fan meeting and we’d been planning to hang out for months.

Our meetup kept getting rescheduled but finally pushed through on Moon Bin’s birthday. It was pure coincidence that that was the day we scheduled it.

I even remember telling her that it’s Bin’s birthday when we meet up. We had so much fun catching up, filming Tiktok dance challenges and even recreating Moon Bin and Sanha photos.

There’s really nothing like hanging out in real life with friends! 

@izzmatias

How two Arohas & KPop content creators celebrated Moon Bin Day 🥰 Chup Chup dc by me: @Izzy Matias Moon bin inspired outfit: @Izzy Matias Recreating Binsan’s photos: @Izzy Matias #hallyutalkph #hallyu #kpop #kpopph #moonbin_sanha #moonbinsanhachupchup #chupchup #binsan #moonbin #sanha #yoonsanha #astro #aroha #아스트로 #아로하 #믄빈 #산하 #문빈_산하 #incense #moonbinastro #sanhaastro #yourdaychallenge #chupchupchallenge #vlog #dailyvlog #dailyvlog #happymoonbinday #dayinthelife #dayinthelifevlog #contentcreatorvlog #kpopcreator #kpopcontentcreator #kpopfan #kpopfans #kpopstan #kpoplover Day in the life vlog of content creator KPop content creator Happy Moon Bin Day 2023 Aroha Vlog Moon Bin Sanha 문빈

♬ original sound – Izzy Matias – Izzy Matias

I finally met up with one of my best friends from College

On the last day of January, I finally got to hang out with one of my best friends. Though we talk to each other every day, hanging out in real life is still a different experience. We got to catch up and excitedly make plans for the future!