decisions determine destiny
I was too busy looking for love in someone else that I forgot to give it to myself
Baby girl it’s you against the world.
Dust yourself off and stand up. Take a deep breath and get ready to step forward.
Everyday is a new day, every hour is a new start. Every step is a new step forward.
I ran on the treadmill, my foot still swollen from the injury. Every time my right foot touched the track, the pain shot up, reminding me of the incident. Telling me to stop. Thud, thud thud.
But I pushed through, I was determined to not let to override me. Pain is just a perception I chanted to myself.
Just keep going, one step at a time
I’ve done this again and again, I’ve typed something and then proceeded to erased it. Proceeded to backspace like it didn’t happen, like those thoughts never crossed my mind.
And you may wonder why. Why I felt this inertia to hold it all in like it was my most kept secret. And honestly I don’t know. It wasn’t as if it was a secret nor was it a revelation. But I was scared that if I had typed it, if I had published it, it would become real.
And honestly I just wanted to continue to live in this fantasy just a minute longer. I wanted to play out the life of when I told you to stay, instead of pushing you away.
Or just any alternate world where we weren’t strangers.
I want to write again
I want to express, be creative, and be me again
I want to let my thoughts run wild and open up my soul
I finally feel ready to stop hiding behind society’s need to go, go, go
Snippet mates?
Within our lives, we meet so many people that often shape us to two we are today. People will impact us positively, as well as negatively and we will learn from the lessons that they have taught us. Some of these people will be your family and childhood friends. People who have been in your life for a long time, that know you nearly better than yourself. But have you ever had someone come into your life for just a snippet, but leave you with so many life lessons?
In today’s day and age, the swiping and hook up culture is at it’s all time high. While entering my mid twenties, I am not proud to say that I have a participant of this culture. Previously, I had only met people in person and had mostly wanted to be in serious relationships. However something had struck me to change my mind for a bit and adventure to explore what else was out there.
For once I had the mind set of just meeting new people and seeing what the world had to offer me. I trawled through a few dating applications, with my fingers moving left and right. I dabbled in a couple of conversations, rarely being excited by the conversations. Things were hard, they felt stale and I honestly just wanted to meet someone who I could match my physical needs and emotional unavailability.
And then there was him. I felt this unruly need to just feel comfortable with him. Honest, blunt, and we seemed to want the same things. He was back in town for the weekend. We only spent three hours together but they felt like some of the most solid and reassuring three hours of my life. We talked about careers and life goals, and how we essentially felt indifferent about the world. He reassured me that if I wanted it enough that I would get there. That I had it in me and I was aiming for not just a job but a lifestyle.
He gave me an alternate view on life and effectively clarity. I felt like I could breathe again.
Who knows if we will meet again. In a world of attachment and when someone is just a click away, I feel like I should be obliged to reach out to him. Because things just felt so right, but I think this is the soul purpose of a Snippet mate. That they just come in for a snippet to create a pivotal point in your life. So I’m going to push anything, because for once in my life I felt content. He came into my life so serendipitous. It was the right place and the right time, it just felt so easy and liberating.
Influencers are King
Modern society is emersed in a world of marketing. There is not one hour, let alone one day, that we are able to live without encountering some form of marketing. In turn this makes us all the ultimate consumers, whether that be through billboards and classic television advertisions. Or ultimately the most effective nowadays, which is through social media that can be accessed at all times from the palm of hands.
“Influencers” are online presences that also claim to be “content creators” who are known to have large followings. They can build their following through many things, such as fitness, food, travelling, finance, home decor, or just because they are deemed generically beautiful. All in all, name a category and there will be an influencer for it. With the numbers of influencers growing, along with the hours that everyone spend on social media, it would be silly not to utilise this platform. Businesses have began to turn to these “influencers” as their latest marketing ploy.
Word of mouth is thought to be one of the best and most authentic avenues for marketing. It is usually the most reliable, as people will trust their friends or family who are providing them with the information. Thus, influencers who are relateable and loved by their followers, are able to utilise this “word-of-mouth” type of marketing and reach audiences of thousands. Influencers are paid large sums of money to formulate posts, videos and shoutouts to businesses. And with this comes the decrease in popularity of old-school advertisements as they become less and less effective when put against the power of the influencers.
From the masses, it is a no-brainer that you would trust the people that you follow and idolise. Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers often seem more relatable and down to earth. They produce vlogs and “a day in my life” to portray that their lives are normal and that we can relate to them. As we believe that we are on the same level as these influencers we often feel a closer connection and formulate higher levels of trust and respect for what they have to say. We perceive then to be more authentic and trustworthy, thus as businesses reach out to these influencers they can expect a spike in their sales.
Unfortunately, these influencers cannot always be trusted. As many are viewed to be more relatable, there also comes a catch that many of them are young, without a manager, and also have little credentials to support the responsibility of their large followings and influence. There was a wave of influencers promoting “skinny tea”, as the online company approached beautiful, thin women promote this tea for a large sum of money. Without much research or actual use of the brand, everyone'se newsfeeds were full of this “skinny tea” and sales peaked. Until, people who truly utilised the product found the tea only kept to the promise of the name as it contained laxatives. Thus supporting the effectiveness of the new age marketing tactics, along with the need for skeptism towards these new online companies as many do not appeal to national product standards.
Overall, marketing tactics are ever changing due to the change in society and how people consume their content. As people turn away from television and radios and turn towards their laptops and phones, businesses need to adapt to stay in the game. To do this it is vital that they have influencers aboard to promote their products and appeal to the “word-of-mouth” and authentic product promotion and review towards consumers. While consumers need to understand that many of these influencers are being paid to promote products, and therefore need to be more vigillent to research the products and not blindly follow their favourite online influencers.
