Last Friday it finally happened! The much-awaited Steemit London meetup brought together more than 20 active, as well as prospective users of this fast-growing online platform at the Queen of Hoxton club in Shoreditch, East London.
Organized by @redrica, who bought the first round of drinks for everyone from her very Steemit earnings, this meetup was an eclectic mish-mash of voices and faces of various backgrounds, interests and passions, united under the questions: "What brings you to Steemit? What do you blog about?"
Whenever faced with this question, I had to take a deep breath in, compose myself and try to find some more practical ways of describing the fact that I write about "everything and nothing at the same time."
"Well, yeah, I write about grounded spirituality and personal development, I am actually writing a series called Diary of a Free Spirit, in which I share at large about my journey and inner processes."
I was actually very delighted to meet another fellow devoted writer, @lloyddavis, who shared with me that every day he shows up to a blank page with the following question in mind: "What is true for me today?", and simply allows the stream of consciousness to flow through.
I found that to be a very powerful piece of distilled clarity. Indeed, I find myself reflecting along the same lines every single morning when I write my morning pages - WHAT IS TRUE FOR ME TODAY? And I think that's a good piece of advice for any Steemit newbies who are maybe struggling to find inspiration for their first posts.
I also found out that @lloyddavis holds a weekly meetup, a Social Media Cafe, every Friday from 10 to 12 am right in the heart of the City of London. I was intrigued by the idea of just people coming together to explore what is most authentic and alive in the area of the latest trends in social media and connectivity. I'm looking forward to joining them very soon!
According to his website, @lloyddavis helps people to get done the things that they want to do: "I can help most with building rich relationships online and off- using social forms of media such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and videoblogging."
He is certainly someone I'd like to connect more! Looking forward to joining you at your Friday meetup in the next couple of weeks!
I also met this awesome character @adetorrent who had his camera ready for action at any minute.. He is a life vlogger and his enthusiasm was quite contagious... You can get a feel of his mischievous nature from the photo underneath, I hope! We learnt that we've both joined Steemit around the same time, in December, and he was a bit envious that I had a slightly bigger reputation score than his.
To be honest, I was a bit sad to hear that, as I do not believe in competition and comparisons of such kind. I think everyone is on their own journey, on different stages of development and they are exactly where they need to be in any given moment. So, @adetorrent, if you're reading this, just know that you're amazing just as you are, and that numbers do not reflect your intrinsic value of the great person that is growing through you, as a gift to all your avid viewers and to the entire world...
I then met another interesting character, @galacticwoman, who happens to live in the same area as I do (Bromley, Kent)... and oh, dear... what a woman!! Galactic indeed! She is 60 something (?!) but doesn't look older than 40, she confessed she had a 21 year old boyfriend and that she's all about body regeneration, quantum biology, being self-sourced, the inner GPS guiding system, etc? Wow.. I loved this woman and we hit it off instantly, I looked at her and saw my future self talking to me! I think she's up to some serious mischief... watch her space!
As I was walking around, hoping to bump into someone else that I can strike a proper conversation with, I connected with @myvitriol, who began expounding various theories of quantum physics, buddhism and karma, although @immarojas was finding it slightly challenging to follow the thread of the conversation...
Ahem.. I think he kinda got lost in his fascinating theories but not really being present with the people in the conversation.. If you're reading this, please don't be upset with me, I like to be brutally honest and say what I see, in a non-judgmental and loving way 😃
After all, that's what I notice happens when some people are very open to spiritual theories and energies, but don't really find ways in which to ground them.. and this is the very aspect I questioned him on.
As he acknowledged, he is finding it difficult to strike the balance between the "oneness of it all" and the limitations and boundaries of human existence... Because, after all, one must do something about a burglar breaking inside one's house!!! Hahaha... He is a lovely chap, and I feel his struggles and also kind heart, he shared some lovely resources about personality types with me 😃
As you might probably notice, I'm not one for surface level chit-chat.. I like to go deep.. So I was quite pleased to have had a few interactions that went a bit further than a mainstream chat.. and into the depths of the human psyche...
Apart from these lovely people, I also met the two beautiful sisters, @ingaaa and @allasyummyfood, accompanied by the fine gentleman @ivargereiko. @ingaaa just made her first steemit post after opening her profile a year and a half ago, and she has some very lovely vibes, I'd like to connect more with her at the next meetup!
Her sister is becoming the ambassador for London Steemians so she was taking short videos of everyone who wished to share their username and what they write about on camera. I was delighted to find that she is now fully devoting herself to Steemit, making a living out of pursuing her passion of sharing her delicious recipes, as well as helping others get started on the platform. Keep up the good work, @allasyummyfood!
@ultravioletmag was also there, in her sparkly black dress, I wished I spoke to her more but she was lost in conversations I didn't want to disturb her from.. But she surely caught my interest and I am looking forward to getting to know her better too. I have a feeling we have something really interesting in common, I wonder what that is...
Anyway, there were so many other people I only just briefly interacted with, I wish I could have connected with more of them, but the music was getting very loud and one had to literally shout from the top of their lungs to get themselves heard, and my throat was quite aching! Next time hopefully we find somewhere quieter to connect 😃 that is not to say being in Shoreditch's top clubs wasn't quite an experience!
I even got myself a life minute portrait by a Steemit aspirant, a lovely guy I unfortunately didn't get the name of... he was quite intrigued about all this Steemit business and was asking me about how it works so far for me.. I said to him, like I say to anyone else:
If you're up for a commitment, if you have the time, energy and willingness in your life to devote to Steemit, if you have something cool you wanna share with the world and have the passion for writing... and on top of all that, if you also wanna start making some money out this, you should definitely join Steemit!
So, on that note, I will finish this post and I will say thank you for everyone who showed up, it was lovely to meet you all, and to really come together as human beings, rather than just a bunch of usernames cropping up on a screen.
The London community is slowly coming together and growing, we now have a Discord channel, so if you're in London and wish to join it, here is the invite link: https://discord.gg/WE5dZgX
This is the list with the majority of people who showed up:
@gillianpearce, @rimicane, @adetorrent, @lloyddavis, @redrica, @teodora, @immarojas, @bristena94, @dragosroua, @galacticwoman, @colossus39, @simonjay, @ingaaa, @allasyummyfood, @ivargereiko, @myvitriol, @hunterx7, @ultravioletmag / @fashionphotos, @stevejhaggett
Be You, Be WIld, Be Free!
Hey, if you liked what you read so far, why not check out my latest episodes from Diary of a Free Spirit, a radically honest, soulful and cheeky account of my journey of self-exploration, transformation and purposeful living :)
Diary Of A Free Spirit Ep. 1 - Introduction
Diary Of A Free Spirit Ep. 2 - The Inner Voice
Diary Of A Free Spirit Ep. 3 - The Day That Changed My life
Bristena,
#DiaryOfaFreeSpirit