This year, for many has been full of heartbreak and awful feelings. Which, is true, a lot of awful things happened this year. We lost many wonderful celebrities who have helped us become who we are and some people have lost connections with other people and things. Though we have to remember the little things that helped us shine this year, as the world, like it, or not, will keep moving and we have to as well. I wanted to write this post talking about some positive experiences I’ve had this year, in hopes to brighten at least my little corner of the internet.
The year started off strong, we were fresh off from 2015 and ready to start our new goals. Though for the life of me I can’t remember mine, but can anyone remember their previous year’s resolutions? Anyway, the first memorable moment happened when I first stumbled into Diana Jang’s YouNow broadcast. I still won’t ever forget her calling Em Harriss and I wrote in the chat “so meta”. She probably thought I was some dumbass troll at the time, but that was the start of an awesome friendship. Since that broadcast, Diana has turned me on to so much new music and a whole lot of other talented broadcasters and even fans. September of 2015, I remember I only had about 113 followers, or so. Now that number is around the 250 mark as of this post, and I’m so happy to say 60% of those wonderful people are the people I met thanks to Diana and YouNow. Times weren’t always cheery and grand though, Diana and I had our ups and downs as I tend to say the wrong things at moments, but we always made up and we were always there when it mattered. She’s one of my closet friends and I love her to death, always will.
Thanks to Diana, I met other wonderful people, Caitlin Bell, Emma McGann, Nikki Rechtszaid, Amelia Eisenhauer, and Brittany J Smith to name a few. Thanks to them, I also met some of their most wonderful fans, I don’t talk to you all every day, but you all mean something dear to me and you’ve helped me grow, and I hope I’ve helped you. Thank you all.
Moving on about a month later, Em linked this brand new website, Krue.tv, and from my first day watching her on that website, I immediately fell in love with Krue. Next to Twitch, it was the cleanest and most utilized website I’ve seen. To this day, it is one of the best live streaming websites on this internet, hands down. From that website, my fam of tight knit awesome people really started to grow, there are far too many people to link, but I love every single person I’ve met on that website and you’ve all helped me grow tremendously. Every single broadcast I’ve been in from Krue’s to Em’s, Diana’s, Chelsea’s, Kevin’s, and every other broadcast has been the highlight of many of my days and have made the days after a broadcast joyful. We had some pretty fun times from celebrating Krue’s birthday as well as Diana’s birthday. Special shoutout to Michael Barnum and Jamie for organizing all the people for those videos. Thank you all.
There were many other positive moments this year, but in lieu of not writing a novel, I will only go to thank one more person.
Em Harriss, I briefly followed you on Vine in 2013, but fell off shortly after until I rediscovered you about this time last year. We formed a connection then, but since then I am so grateful and happy I’ve gotten to know you as well as I have. For one, you are one of the most talented individuals I have ever met and I’m glad I can follow your journey to be one of the great stars of our generation. But you’ve become such a great friend as well. You’ve made every single one of my days better and I’ve followed you through a lot of your ups, downs, and discovery of who you are this year. We’ve had some great conversations too and you’ve helped me meet other people who have shared interests. Thank you, you will always have a special place in my heart and I will always be right behind you through every up, down.
One more person. Elif, thank you. We both love Em to death and it feels like we’re almost the same person, just on two different sides of the world. I’ve always joined our talks, you’re an awesome person and I hope to meet you one day.
Thank you for your time
Cody Riordan
