So in case you haven't noticed already, I've just got back from New York, and have been a little bit excitable sharing all my pictures, videos, outfits, stories and posts with you! This post will now mark the start of the main and final posts about my trip and then I promise I'll shut up about it haha.
In case you missed them, you can catch my first vlog of our flight day/first evening in NYC here, my second vlog of our first full day in NYC here, my first outfit of the day from Day 1 here, and 21 Things I Learnt as a British First-Timer in New York here.
As you may remember from this post here, a week before I left for New York City, I started an ambitious little project with you guys. I opened up my Tumblr inbox to the world, and asked you to send me your addresses if you'd like to be a part of a little global experiment.
On the plane, I wrote a short story. A story of life, love, curiosity and imagination.
Upon arrival to New York I bought 10 postcards and split this story into 10 fragments, 10 missing pieces of the puzzle. Out of the hundreds I received, I then selected 10 addresses from the list, and sent these postcards off all across the world.
I know it's 2014 and all, but for some reason I just didn't think this would really be possible, that at least one or two tiny little pieces of card would go missing along their mammoth journeys across the globe.
But lo and behold, by some sweet miracle... every single one made it to their destination, even the one sent to the tiny little island of Tasmania just off the Australian coast.
And taking to Instagram and Twitter with their hashtags, every single person managed to find their way back and find one another to work together to organise themselves and put the story back together.
I can't even explain how humbled, awed and quite honestly surprised at how well this has turned out - massive kudos to the global postal system!
The next step is to create a montage video featuring all of these people and that's when the full story shall be revealed, but until then, have a look at the postcard pictures that were posted to the web by each person to help locate the other puzzlers - click on each of their names to see their posts about it!
#1 - Katherine Burke - Willington, Connecticut, USA
#3 - Shaina Seitz - Alberta, Canada
#4 - Giulia Caggiano - Paris France
#5 - Charlotte Chorley - Cambridge, UK
#6 - Freddy Castro - Georgia, USA
#7 - Leneth Witte - IJsselstein, Netherlands
#8 - Nicola Faes - Herentals, Belgium
#9 - Jordan Hay - Tasmania, Australia
#10 - Holly Jones, Gather.ly - London
And there you have it - all 10 of the postcards returned safe and sound.
I absolutely love creating and going forth with projects like this, engaging with the people who are helping to make my dream a reality by reading all that I write, and collaborating together to create something bigger.
That's why I have entered this project into the Cosmo Blog Awards 2014, for the 'Best Use of Social Media' category.
Below is my manifesto that I submitted:
Below is my manifesto that I submitted:
"Although my blog is primarily a personal thought blog, there is no category for that. However, I definitely like to think I qualify for the Best Use of Social Media category.
I thrive on trying to create new and exciting interactions between the online world and the real world using social media to engage my readers. For example, on a recent trip to New York City, I asked my readers to send me their addresses if they would like to be a part of a little global experiment.
On the plane, I wrote a short story. Upon arrival to New York I bought 10 postcards and split this story into 10 fragments, 10 missing pieces of the puzzle. Out of the hundreds I received, I then selected 10 of the addresses and sent these postcards off all across the world, to Connecticut, Paris, Canada, Holland, Australia, London, Texas, Belgium, Cambridge and Georgia.
The task of each recipient upon finding the card in their mailbox was to then go on and find one another, all on complete opposite sides of the planet, to piece the story back together. I put a hashtag on each one to facilitate this, and so by the use of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, all 10 were actually able to find one another and organise among themselves to piece the story back together.
The last part of this idea is for each of these people to then send me a video of themselves stating their name, where they live, then reading out their postcard. This way, I can compile it all together into a Youtube video, which will hopefully look amazing with all their different accents and locations, and the full story can be narrated in order.
I create little ideas and projects all the time, and I'm lucky to have such an amazing readership to allow me to actually put these plans into action.
I don't think social media is necessarily just about being the person with the most followers, because followers can be gained in so many underhanded ways these days. And don't get me wrong, getting a thousand likes on a selfie is what everyone dreams of, but what does it really mean? For me, social media is all about what you can do with it, it's about finding new exciting ways to push the boundaries and create thought-provoking ideas to make people smile.
And I love it. To me, my blog has become more than just that, it's become a place to be excited and passionate about life, to share amazing stories and ideas and discuss with true sincerity and integrity the scary parts of life, the wonderful parts of life, and a place for others to share too, their stories with me."
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If you think I deserve a nomination, it would mean the world to me if you could follow this link and nominate Scarphelia.com for the Best Use of Social Media category.
Regardless, I have many more ideas up my sleeve of similar projects like this, and I cannot wait for the summer holidays, so I can truly start adventuring around, living my dream, and creating wonderful ideas with incredible people.
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