Firstly, I'd just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their day to read Scarphelia, and continue to do throughout the month! The feedback has been unexpected and astounding, and the overall reception of this whole thing has been overwhelming. Thank you all so much.
Secondly, the end of act one signifies one tenth of the first step of my journey complete. My first aim is to create something spectacular of myself by October, and the first month of that adventure is now complete! It's a little bit daunting, but also ludicrously exciting. I was worried that by this point I would've come to realise that I'd done nothing but waffle and rant for one solid month, and although I have done that, it has been alot more successful than I could ever have dreamt it would be. I never would've thought I would've achieved five thousand views in thirty days! Scarphelia has opened so many doors and created so many opportunities, and this is all in month one. It's almost too exciting to fathom what could've happened by October.
In the last few days of January, I have again found myself in the middle of the most bizarre and curious set of wonderful and unexpected events - which I owe entirely to making a conscious effort to see the silver side of life and to live the shit out of it. This has made my faith in fate and my philosophies on life grow ever stronger and more vibrant, and for the first time in my life, I feel as though I am actually onto something here. So this is what happened...
The first thing that happened was on a cold and miserable Monday night, after hours of training and my body battered and bruised, I was finally convinced to join the interesting boys in our campus pub. Funnily enough, the very same pub where I first met them that one fateful evening outside on the benches, trying to rob a drunk fresher.
The place was packed to the rafters. I've never seen the place so busy - it turns out all the exchange students had arrived from the Study Abroad Program, and the pub was their first port of call, naturally. Now, there's nothing which excites me more than a room packed-full of strangers, especially ones who are bound to have such incredible stories, coming from all reaches of the world. One of the main redeeming factors of my first year was the friends we'd made in some Australian exchange students. So I infected the room like a conversation virus, spreading from person to person, my curiosity exploding out of control as I met these bizarre and wonderful people. I spoke to people from Singapore, Australia, France and The Netherlands, and from all different walks of life, with the craziest stories.
After a few hours of fun, I finally took a seat, and started chatting with a home student. He was friendly and pretty intriguing. For reasonable reasons because of reasons, I shall refer to him as Blake Samuels. He began telling me about this tech start-up business he'd created and I found myself more and more curious. He seemed particularly interested about what degree I was doing and what I wanted to do with my career when I graduated. I thought it was a surprising topic of conversation for a pub, but as you all know, there's nothing I love more than talking about myself, so I took a deep breath and launched into my tirade.
The atmosphere in the pub was absolutely buzzing and I was feeling particularly devilish and ignited by all the silver people around me, so I didn't hold back. Blake was a complete stranger, (just how I like them) but regardless, I began my passionate rant about how I feel I have the world at my feet and the future in my hands, and one day I'm going to take over the planet. I mentioned Scarphelia and how I'm 'one determined motherfucker', and even mocked him for not having a business card he could give me. He sat back in an awed silence and just watched me tire myself out with bold dramatic statements and grand hand gestures as I explained my story so far, and where I want to go. I've never seen someone so entirely overwhelmed and amused. A few days before I'd ordered a load of stickers with the Scarphelia URL and a QR code on with the aim of sticking them all over Uni and the surrounding cities, and in the spirit of things I even whipped them out and stuck them all over his arms, with a wonderful "You won't forget my name, darling."
I laughed about it all the way home but didn't think much more of it. If anything, I was convinced I'd scared the poor living daylights out of the boy. Letting it slip to the back of my mind, the prospect of the next week thrilled me, as there was a grand social networking and blogging conference being held the next day, with famous blogger Zoe Griffin (www.livelikeavip.com) coming to speak and answer questions. There were also two other guest speakers, a recent graduate who'd won the young enterprise competition with her cupcake business, and a promising young business tycoon.
The very next day, with my notepad at the ready, my hands itching to get scribbling some notes, and my excitement bubbling, I headed toward the auditorium for the Hertfordshire Enterprise, Blogging and Careers seminar. I walk in and almost stumble over my own feet in shock. Because there, on the panel next to famous blogger Zoe Griffin and the young cupcake extraordinaire, the promising young business tycoon, the very guy I'd spent a good half an hour telling I was going to take over the world and sticking my stickers all over, Blake Samuels sat.
More to come on these curious events and a very special announcement to come, stay tuned!
Scarlet-Ophelia.