Here's my HanayoBirthdayGiveaway entry, I hope you all enjoy reading about my journey with Hanayo and how she's grown to be my best girl!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Hanayo more than anything. When I first downloaded SIF in the summer of 2015, I was convinced that Nozomi would be my best girl, and for the first few months she was, until I watched the Love Live anime. As soon as Hanayo showed up on screen and started speaking, I was smitten. In all my years of reading and watching anime and manga, no other character has captured my heart as swiftly and strongly as she has.

She was sweet, soft-spoken, adorable, and more importantly relatable. At the time I was going through some very difficult personal issues, so having something to connect to and find solace in is what helped me get through it all and survive. Playing SIF and watching the anime gave me something to distract myself and get my mind off things when I was in this bad time, and during that time I found myself feeling more and more connected to Hanayo each time I'd boot up SIF or started a new episode. There was something about her and how she'd try her hardest even when things were difficult that inspired me, and helped me stay focused and keep giving it my all, despite the rough situation I was in. She felt like a friend, someone I could look to for a smile or encouragement, and heavens knows I needed that encouragement more than ever. Even after the situation died down, she kept me going and kept encouraging me to try my best. Ever since then she's been my best girl, one of my favorite characters of all time, the light of my life, and my muse (no pun intended lmao).

The first time I ever whaled, the first time I ever seriously put money into SIF, was to scout for White Day Hanayo. She was gorgeous, like a literal angel. I had to have her. So way way too much money later, including all my birthday money, I didn't get her. Sure I was bummed out, anyone else would be if they put in as much as I did and didn't get what I was hoping for, but it left me determined to try my hardest and get her the next time a UR of her came out. I saved up tons of gems for every UR of hers that came out after that, and some of those times I was lucky and she came home, and some of them she chose to stay back and made me wait for another time. Along with scouting for all her URs, I've tried to t1 all her events on the EN server, and was lucky enough to get in the top 100 for her detective SR, moon viewing SR, and book reading SR! The images may not be super clear on my final rankings, but my scores and rankings should be recorded here on SIT under each of those events!

It was also around this time that I became dead-set on cosplaying her, and doing as good of a job as I possibly can to bring my precious girl to life. I made an imgur album of how my cosplays progressed since February 2016 to just a few days ago. I still need to get more outfits and work on my makeup, but I think I'm finally starting to do Pana justice! Here's my Pana cosplay progress! Along with working hard on cosplaying her, I've started collecting and making a shrine and itabag for Hanayo! My friends convinced me to make a bag for her after I saw how much fun they were having collecting and organizing everything for their own bags, and because there's some things that just won't fit in a bag no matter how hard you try, I also started building a shrine for Pana to show her my love and devotion, and also because I just really wanted a nice organized shelf to showcase the stuff I've collected of her. Not pictured is also a large Hanayo nesoberi, which I cuddle every night when I sleep. Because of my depression I tend to get bouts of really bad insomnia that makes it impossible for me to stay asleep or even fall asleep in the first place, but when I cuddle her I can relax and she helps me get more sleep than I usually would because of her calming and caring demeanor.

I really do love her a lot and I appreciate all the help that this character has done for me, and while there's no real way I can make it up to her, I can only hope that other people are able to find solace and comfort in her the same way I have. <3 <3 <3