Hey Steemers! For my birthday, I’m giving myself steemit. Thanks, me!
So, let’s start with the basics. My name’s Alli. Or Allison. Actually, no—my name’s Allison. But I started going by Alli when I was 11 because I was in Middle School and everything was dramatic and I needed a cause. Mom, Dad, I hate my name! I’m waaayyy more of an ‘Alli’ than an ‘Allison’, so you guys need to call me that from NOW ON!
So dramatic. But (lucky me!) it worked. Now for the last 14 years I’ve been answering questions like Now, how do you spell that? Two ‘L’s and an ‘E’? Or do you spell it with a Y? I tried to start fresh as Allison at my last two jobs, but I was introduced to both bosses as “Alli” by friends, so I was screwed from the start. Anyway, enough about my name. What else should I tell you guys? Let’s see...
I’m a 25-year-old college grad from Arkansas. I studied Journalism in school because I wanted to help people tell their stories. Now I’m passionate about marketing because I want to help people tell their stories. I love stories. And I love people. (Duh.)
About the whole marketing thing. That’s kinda why I’m here. I currently work in editorial at a startup content marketing agency, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Also, just bein’ real, I’m pretty good at it. But I realized something recently. I get so into marketing for clients and marketing for the company I work for, but I’ve never put much into marketing myself. I never really thought I was worth it (Am I worth it?). And I’ve always been a little scared. Scared that if I share anything real (that has my name on it), it could somehow affect my work life or some of my relationships. But I’m over it.
Recently, the company I work for part-time gently told me that they lost a couple of key clients and won’t be able to promise my paycheck anymore. They certainly won’t be able to promise transitioning me to full-time, which I (perhaps naïvely) thought was happening very soon. It’s not their fault, it’s just the business of startups. But it’s not my fault either.
I’m ready to start doing what I can control. If I don’t post to steemit right now, today, that is my fault. So here I am, internet.
I was raised by conservative Southern Baptist parents. I have an older sister who has three beautiful kiddos with my brother-in-law, and a younger brother who’s getting married at the end of the year. The three of us have matching tattoos, which I think is pretty neat. I love my family more than anything. But I’m also very different from them.
I got married at 21 and divorced at 22. I was horrified that I would have to carry that baggage for the rest of my life, but then I realized that everything is impermanent and nothing really matters. And I’m 100% comfortable with that.
I nerd out about Star Wars and Cosmic Encounter (the board game), and my dog is named after a Battlestar Galactica character (Sweet Gaius, him love him mama so muuuuch!). I love HBO and hammocks and the cosmos. I cried a little this morning because I saw the new baby bird in the nest on my front porch for the first time (He was chirping at me for my birthday, guys!). It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed by how beautiful everything is. Sometimes people think I’m just acting and sometimes people think I’m just stoned. But it’s just that I feel things really deeply. Believe me, it’s not always a great thing.
When I was 18 I was diagnosed with adult-onset night terrors and a hoard of additional sleep issues. I have a history of panic attacks, but I get better and keeping them in check every day. I have an incredibly irrational fear of wasps. (I thought about skipping this one, but it's a pretty big part of my life.) Music takes me to a spiritual place, even though I’m not sure I’d consider myself a spiritual person. I’m an ENFP (surprise!). I stopped eating animal products about 6 months ago. And I guess I’m sort of a horror junkie. I also have a large collection of porcelain dolls.
Am I interesting yet?
I feel like I’ve already written too much, so I’ll leave you with this. Be honest with me, guys. Is there any part of you that would be interested in reading more stuff from me? I’m excited to dive deeper into some of that ^^, and probably other way-more-important things that I’ll indubitably forget to mention and kick myself for as soon as I hit post. I mean, if you guys are down. I’m down.
Thanks for reading, and let me know if there’s anything specific that you’d be interested to read about in the future! I think this is gonna be fun...
OH, and I was told I need this for verification purposes:
wellcome
Happy Birthday! Welcome to steemit!
Thank you!
Welcome to the madness (and congrats on going vegan)!
Thanks @piedpiper, I've heard wonderful things : ). Are you vegan too??
Yup. My girlfriend is studying for her plant-based chef's certification from Rouxbe now and will be opening a restaurant down here in Chile soon. Exciting times ahead.
Wow, definitely exciting! That's amazing. I wish there was an entirely plant-based restaraunt where I live! Also, I kinda wish I lived in Chile. Do you love it?
Yeah, there's a lot to love about it... though it comes with trade-offs. Gotta get used to lower standards when it comes to quality and availability of some products... and customer service is often pretty bad but I consider it an acceptable price to pay for being away from all the craziness of the northern governments. If World War Three broke out tomorrow, we wouldn't be affected much down here. I consider it my fallback position. A nice little bastion to retreat to when things get nutty.
Hi Alli aka @contentalli, welcome to Steemit, and happy birthday! There is no better way to celebrate your birthday than with a Steemit account.
A journalist could really make a huge impact on the Steemit community, and I'm glad that you decided to join us.
What startup do you work for? Or are you not allowed to share that information?
Thanks Alli, and I look forward to reading more posts from you.
Thanks @albertfall! I'm really excited to be here.
Right now I work for a content marketing agency called SMACK.co. It's a wonderful place full of great ideas, and my time there has taught me so much. But I'm transitioning into doing mostly freelance, so they'll be one of several clients! And I'll have a lot more time for steemit!
Anything in particular you'd be interested to read about?
We are excited to have you here as well @contentalli!
Content marketing is fun. I've done my share of content marketing for a small news media publication. Glad to hear that your enjoying the transition into freelancing. There is nothing like having control over your working hours and your workload.
I'd love to read more on the inner workings of a marketing agency, the day to day of a newly established freelancer, or anything else that you're passionate about.
By the way, thanks for the upvote and response Alli!
You would do much better if you provided a verification picture.
@neoxian How's that?
Awesome, very nice. Sorry but Steemit has given out thousands of dollars to frauds before, so we try to be wary.
I totally get that, and I didn't even think about it. So I'm glad you said something!
Oh, thanks! I'll do that now!
Glad to have you aboard. #girlpower
Thanks, I appreciate that!
Welcome to the party gorgeous! If no one has told you yet, your steem is better as steem dollars because you earn interest on it and it's possible to liquidate if you need to. If you have some money to sock away, put into steem and power up to Steem Power! This will give you some influence around here AND your steem power $ will earn even more interest. Look at your wallet and hit refresh every 5 minutes or so and the steem power rises because of the interest accrued. The total eatimated value of your account may go down, or fluctuate but that is based on the market price of steem and your steem power going up is where the real value lies. See you around! Steem on
Thank you! I've read a little bit about it, but I'm definitely still figuring all that out. I appreciate the advice! See ya around!
Happy Birthday and welcome to Steem it!!!! And remember, don't think about the money.
Aaawe thanks @johnnyyash and Alice!
Nothing better than chillin out or even taking a power nap in a hammock ...Welcome to steemit:)
Very true : ). Thanks @cryptoiskey!
Happy BirthDay, Alli))))
Thanks! : )
updated with verification and looks real enough. so, Happy Birthday.
all the best with your marketing work.
Thanks, I appreciate that!
You are welcome
Hey @contentalli welcome to Steemit ! Crazy that you got married and divorced in a year at such a young age. Actually now that I think about it the divorce rate nowadays is really high maybe not THAT crazy. I had a question for you.
Being that you're a horror junkie, did you're night terrors start before or after you started liking horror? Any association or is it completely irrelevant? Also your fear of wasps; were you traumatized because you got stung by one before? One more thing. You mentioned you have a matching tattoo with your brother and sister. Can you show us a pic of that? Did you guys get it at the same time or was it just an agreed upon thing?
P.S. Happy Birthday !!
Thanks @ultralord! It is crazy, isn't it? We lived together for a few years before that, and we started dating when I had just turned 18 and moved away from home. He was 8 years older, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was devastated when it ended, but the experience forced me to figure out who I was as an individual, and I learned so much from it!
Good questions! The night terrors actually started a few years before I started getting into horror and creepy stuff. I don't think they're related— I had several sleep studies done when the night terrors started happening, and the doctors basically said that I have an overactive brain at night. That can manifest itself in different ways, and night terrors is one of those. I don't have a single memory of anything scary happening during a night terror. In fact, I don't ever remember anything from them except the aftermath. I've given myself a black eye before, and I've definitely freaked out some exes and friends. And I wake up sore and exhausted. I should probably write a new post about some of this stuff!
I remember the exact moment I realized I could get into the horror genre. I was so terrified of horror movies, haunted houses, everything like that until I forced myself to watch a horror movie with my boyfriend and a couple of friends at the time. I think there was a jump scare or something, and I screamed—but then I realized I was smiling afterwards. I was so confused, but delighted. I kept asking my friends what was going on! "That's the adrenaline," they told me. I also think my rising interest in horror had a lot to do with my evolving mindset. As I mentioned, I grew up southern baptist. I don't think that helped with my fear. As I got older, I realized I don't have to live in fear of everything. It's liberating!
As far as the wasp thing goes, I'm at a total loss. I don't recall every being stung by anything, and I have a high pain tolerance. I don't mind needles at all, I seek out places to go donate plasma and give blood. And I have tattoos and piercings, so who knows. I love nature and I don't have a problem with spiders or most other critters. It's just a weird anxiety of mine. I'm working on it!
Yes, tattoos—I tried to find a picture of all of us showing them together, but that's difficult to do because we all got them in different spots. I got mine on my forearm (second tattoo), my sister got hers on her foot (her first, after 3 kids!), and my brother got his on his upper arm inside of an Arkansas tattoo he already had (he has a bunch). I know the arrows are a little cliché, but I was happy to get anything the three of us could agree on. We are all very different people in very different stages of life, so it was super cool to me that we were able to land on something. The arrows represent the three of us coming from the same place but moving in different directions. We're all different, but we'll always be connected. My mom actually drew them for us, so that was an awesome bonus. And yes we got them together! This is the best I can do for now:
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