Over the past four years (OMG, WHAT?), I have had an awesome time on this microblog. This site was Xanga 2.0 for me. It was a way to express myself in a concise statement. A way to communicate with those that I never would've connected with otherwise. A journal that I didn't have to worry about my brother breaking into. One of those electronic early 2000's voice-automated journals that I didn't have to worry about forgetting the password to. See below for a pixelated photo of said journal.
Eventually, I gained followers. No doubt due to my handle, dancing GIF, and the ever-growing popularity of generic "problems" Twitter accounts such as #whitegirlproblems. SIDE NOTE: I'd also like to think that people fell in <3 with my original content and rambling, but a girl can dream, right?
With each new follower, I got a little more self-conscious. More people means more eyes, more criticism, more opportunities for embarrassment, more pressure. I'm working on it, but I tend to care a little bit what people think of me. Especially thousands upon thousands of strangers. My friends and family started to tell people and before I knew it, there were way too many friends of friends coming up to me at parties (okay, it was probably 2 parties) talking to me about my Twitter.
It started to become all about my follower count. I spent my time in class (sorry every Ohio State comm professor) thinking of the next tweet, the next witty remark. I know it sounds lame, but it was an integral part of my life. I finally got to 100,000 followers the summer of 2013, which was a pretty huge feat. HEADS UP: I also have pretty huge feet. SIZE 9ISH, WHADDDUPP.
Through Twitter, I learned that writing was one of my true passions. It led to my internship and now my full-time job. Working at an advertising agency has been challenging and fun, but I started to realize there's more to life than retweets and faves. Writing each day at work is fun, but coming home and feeling obligated to tweet for @awkgrlprblms didn't sound so fun anymore. I started to feel drained. Kind of like how you pour pasta into one of those strainers and the water seeps through into the sink. Except my noodle wasn't really working. So, I don't know if this pasta metaphor is as meaningful as I thought it was. UGH, NUTS.
Anywho, I started to see a decline in my followers. I pretended not to care, not to notice. UH, YEAH, RIGHT. I took it super personally, that's just who I am. My coping mechanism transformed into a moping mechanism. I stopped tweeting as much, fearful that whatever I wrote would cause a further decrease in followers. People clicked that pesky "unfollow" button anyway. I tried to surround myself with fans (see picture below) to lift my spirits, but it didn't work.
LOL, anyway. I guess the point of this blog post is to go a little behind-the-scenes/behind-the-laptop-screen. YOU GUYS ARE SCARY, OKAY. This has been such a fun account (and will continue to be), but if it feels like I stopped churning out tweets, that's true. Turns out life is pretty crazy and busy and awesome. So, yeah, I've lost 10k followers over 2 years. That's okay.
I am a 23-year-old normal(ish) young-fauxfessional. By the way, "fauxfessional" is a fun term I made up for anyone in the corporate world that still makes Pringle duck beaks.
Truth is, I shouldn't have even 1,000 followers. There are way funnier, more intelligent people out there. So, it's cool that you guys have buckled in for the ride. Some were here from the start (when the dancing girl in my GIF was actually relevant) and others have jumped aboard later. Regardless, yeah, I've lost 10k the past two years. BUT, I've grown up a little since and now have a 401K. WUT, WUT?!
I am going to continue to "bring out the big puns" with each tweet. Do I tweet as regularly as I once did in between taking notes in Bio 101? Nah. BUT, you can bet that I will still say random awful things that will make you cringe a little from time to time. And hopefully write more blog posts, because this was fun...right? RIGHT?!?!
Just keep an eye out for my new memoir: -10K to 401K
-Awkward Girl/Mary Kate
