Chance encounters and a new direction
It’s funny how one interesting idea, left to fester in your brain, can turn into an exciting new direction. Not altogether the BEST time to have found the inspiration I needed, the idea I needed, to bring back the joy of blogging. But, alas, I will not let the feeling pass. For starters by posting about it here to lock in and commit myself to what is to come.
I have been pondering of late, just how magnificent the world of fangirling is and just how wonderful all the people I am surrounded with are (you know who you are). In pondering I remembered something that was once told to me, it may have just been a quote they heard from another, but it’s something that I can never seem to forget….
“life is but a series of chance encounters”
I’m not going to talk about how I interpret that quote, and I’m not going to get lost in my ponderings in regards to chance encounters. I have not yet found the words I need to express my thoughts on that matter. What I do want to point out is just how many chance encounters I have experienced since joining my fandoms. Even joining the jpop world in the first place was due to a chance encounter with a Japanese Dorama.
Meeting Rika on Aibakaland, finding Aibakaland in the first place, being invited to JEB, commenting on Stacy unnie’s fan fics, bumping into Eden at the airport, getting help from Bunny-chan to make icons, and more! For everyone of you who have friended me on LJ there is a chance encounter leading to our friendship, even for the friending meme (though maybe not as obvious) just having chatted to someone on the meme about a certain topic, finding our common interests, all by chance. And with every encounter comes a story, comes a lesson, comes a chance to grow as a person. It’s these happenings that shape who we are.
Today I had a new chance encounter. It may have just been with someone I will never talk to again, or it may be someone I later become friends with, who knows. All I know is that this encounter, this discussion I had led me to a realisation and also to the inspiration that I mentioned earlier in this post. You may have seen it, but someone decided to give away an item from their KAT-TUN collection, something they had 2 copies of, to a random person. No charge, not even for postage. It made me realise something important. The people in my fandoms are amazing. My life is becoming more and more fulfilling just by meeting but a few of the people around me. I have had many chance encounters in life, but those that have really changed me for the better, the ones that have really shaped me into what I am now, are the encounters I have had with every one of you, with every kind person in this fandom and of course the chance encounters (though not physical) with my idols.
Okay so yeah, again not very good at expressing what I really want to say, but you get the general idea. While thinking about the many people that put their names down for the random drawing of the KAT-TUN CD I could see so many encouraging, grateful and excited comments. So many different people, getting excited over the prospect of owning something that some of them could never even imagine owning. Being able to be part of their fandom, their passion, to a greater extent by owning their music. By chance they happened across the post about the giveaway. By chance they asked to participate. And by chance they had an encounter with a very lovely fangirl. They also, may never speak to her again. Yet their gratitude and their comments towards this fan in their comments were beautiful. She has added something to their lives, be it a tiny ounce of respect, or affirmation of how wonderful our fandoms are.
Anyways I got way too into writing about this. Basically I saw what she did and in it saw an opportunity to increase upon my chance encounters, to meet new people and to also encourage others to reach out and embrace our fellow fangirl/boy. I will trial it maybe 2 or 3 times this year, and then decide if I will continue it next year. I’ll do something similar, it’s still only small, but I think it will be fun. I’m going to start a random JE shop photo giveaway, just one photo, once a month (if I continue it), but with it a condition of entry. A short question, a random task, something that when viewed by another may make them think “hey, that’s kind of interesting, I wouldn’t mind talking to that person”.
The tasks themselves will be small, though I think I need to ponder on them a bit more. It may just be a simple question about the subject of the photo being given away, it might be to write a kanji symbol that you like and explain why, it might even simply be to share a small detail about yourself and then comment on the comment above yours. I’m not sure, I will have to make a list, any ideas are accepted ^^. The actual winner of each giveaway will be completely random though.
I may have put a lot of meaning behind this whole thing, but I will be posting it simply, I won’t be going all wordy and the likes. That would just make things difficult. But alas this is my thought process and how I came about the idea. After every event, I will write a short summary of everyone’s answers and my thoughts on the topic in a separate LJ entry.
Anyhow, before I do this I have to first write my KAT-TUN concert report. I think I finally have the drive to do it now (pity I’m out of town without my travel notebook). Though more importantly, I won’t be able to trial this until after I get back from Japan next month. No point having a giveaway without anything to give away. The only reason I am actually going ahead with this ridiculousness is because I know shop photos are relatively inexpensive if I buy them while I’m away. The one thing I have to be careful of though, is that I don’t stop thinking about my own photo collection. If I like a photo, I will not be giving it away ^^ Come on, I can’t be completely selfless…. haha so I think buying multiple images is the go, buy duplicates. I will most likely not be going with new photos, they will all be from various idol stores and only the cheaper photos. And there I go rambling again.
All in all, I think this will be fun!! I love meting new people and I think it will give me the opportunity to learn more about those I have already met. Hopefully you will all get something out of it too XD
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MAY FLUFF MONSTERS INVADE YOUR SOUL!!!!!!!
P.S. Still haven't got NEWS tix, but they are starting to appear on ticket.co.jp YAY!!!! hopefully my next post will be with good news will be my KAT-TUN report and THEN the good news about NEWS tickets XD.