A Very Festive Message.
It's Christmas Eve, the turkey is in the oven, the presents have all been delivered and I'm baffled how we even got to this point in the year. The older I get the quicker I think the year goes and this one has definitely flown by.
2016 has not been the best year for the world, I think we can safely say that and I plan to write a message/rant for the New Year.
At Christmas, as the Queen does, I think it's always appropriate to write a speech for the holidays.
This time of year always evokes such memories and provides us with some time to reflect on the year gone by.
On this Christmas Eve may we think about the people we have met, the friends we have made and the relationships we have maintained in 2016. I know this year I'll be thinking of my friends, new and old. I'll be toasting my blogging baes, the girls I have met IRL AND URL (that's online FYI), the people have I chatted to on Twitter, the girls that leave comments on my posts...
I will be toasting my blogging besties, my whatsapp group, my picnic pals, my squad with no name on Christmas Day. They are the best thing to come out of blogging this year, to have met online and then met in real life. To have organised an event together, to have smashed that event and to have stayed in touch since then. To talk almost every day, to laugh and share things, both blogging support and real life gossip support. To genuinely want to organise another event together, to want to go away together, to visit eachother at home. I will be wishing them a BIG Merry Christmas this year.
As well as our family and friends, it's important to think of those less fortunate at this time of year. This Christmas we must think of those who didn't hit their blog goals this year, who don't get the love they deserve for their Insta grids, who didn't get the Twitter followers they wanted, those who are still struggling to get a theme they're happy with. May we pray for them to have top social media interactions next year.
In a year of strife let us learn lessons and move on from 2016 in a positive light. Let there be an end to the Instagram algorithm, to Twitter spats and blogger beef and auto DMs and trolls. Let us build the bridges and move on to be a bigger and better community that I know we can be. Let Twitter create an edit tweet button so we don't have to delete every time we make a spelling mistake. Let Snapchat come up with something to solve the death of the app and the rise of Instagram stories.
Let 2017 be a prosperous year, a financially stable year. A year of brand campaigns and sponsored posts and being paid for the hard work we do. Let brands understand we're not going to use Do Follow links, let them realise we don't work for exposure, let them know when they are pushing their luck. May we work with people who value us and value our work. May we be paid for campaigns without others calling us a sell out. May we all find that happy balance between relatable and aspirational. May the internet world appreciate stats and following aren't everything and engagement is far more important. May we redefine micro influencers from 10K-100K because if that's micro I don't know what the fuck the rest of us are doing.
My hope for the coming year is that we move and grow as a society and we do not put pressure on our twenty somethings to have it all. May our elders understand that we can't have a job in the city and a flat at the same time without crippling overdrafts. May they not doubt us when we pay 30K for university fees and then not get a job afterward. May they understand the world isn't built for us anymore, that we can't settle down at 24. Let them appreciate that telling us we're young and should travel the world and be free whilst we still can, whilst also berating us for still living with our parents and not having a husband and a baby is contradictory and helps us in no way.
I hope that the world evolves, that this time of resistance and anti establishment and dissatisfaction in our governments will adapt and all will sort itself out in the end. May society change and accept it's failing it's young people, may it listen and help us. Let Brexit and Trump work out for the better.
And so, on my final note, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy, safe New Year. Let Christmas 2016 signify change. For the better.