The 6th Cebu Steemit Meetup: An Introvert's Perspective

in meetup •  7 years ago  (edited)

Contrary to popular belief, introverts love people. I know I do. We just don't socialize that often because it drains us. We need some time to recharge because our energy comes from our time alone. But that isn't the talk of this post, I'm going to share with you some tales about the 6th Steemit Meetup that happened yesterday - through the eyes and mind of an introvert.

The Venue

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Dolce Cafe, Cebu City. The 6th Cebu Steemit meetup venue


It was my first time in the Dolce Cafe but it didn't take long for the cafe girl in me to love the place. All the corners were so pretty and it helped that @ybanezkim26 and I came early. While waiting for the other Steemians to arrive, we made the most of our waiting time by taking pictures.

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Dolce Cafe interior aka pretty corner 1


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Dolce Cafe interior aka pretty corner 2


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Dolce Cafe breads, cakes and pastries aka pretty corner 3

The People

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Steemians slowly filling the room up


We were greeted by fellow early birds @itinerantph, @mikekenlytungal and @davids-tales. A bit of awkwardness started to creep up from inside me but @itinerantph was so warm with his welcome that it felt like I've already known him for quite a while. Aside from being warm, he was supportive as well. I didn't have that much knowledge about the Steemit leaders in Cebu but I had a feeling that he was one of them. I was lucky that @ybanezkim26 knew a lot about the community. I intended to meet the Steemians in person before I got to know them through their blogs because I wanted to put a face to their names. Because this introvert was feeling a bit social, I wanted to create not only connections online but in real life too!


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I and @ybanezkim26 squeezing in some time for a selfie


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More Steemians filling up the room

The Lectures and Inputs

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@mikekenlytungal sharing to active Steemians fundamental Steemit concepts


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@itinerantph sharing to active Steemians his informative inputs about the platform and @iamwhatiamnot listening intently


@mikkenlytungal shared an overview of the Steemit platform's technicalities. He covered the Steemit basics, the Steem currencies and the other ways to earn through D-tube and Utopian. @purepinay shared her insights as well. She encouraged us to interact with other Steemians on their blogs. It was inspiring to know that she always had the Cebuano Steemians' backs. @itinerantph encouraged me to share my personal project with the group and I'm so thankful that he gave me the opportunity to do so.

The Confidence Project is an initiative that is so important to me. It meant so much to me that fellow Steemians showed their support. My friends and I can't wait to have all of you on board with us, you guys!

The Aftermath

Knowing and brushing up our knowledge of the platform was good and all. But for me, the highlight of the meetup was what happened after. The feeling of awkwardness was barely there as strangers turned into familiar faces. We had one too many group pictures and I'm sure you've probably seen them on the Cebuano Steemians' blogs since last night. Allow me to share with you some of the reasons why I considered the aftermath the highlight of the meetup.


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A connection made known through Steemit. Meeting @josejirafa for the first time


I came to know @josejirafa through his commenting on my posts. He said that my boyfriend was a senior of his in high school. Our connection was a testament to what @purepinay said that interaction in the comments section can lead to a connection. @ybanezkim26 had a similar experience too. He met a schoolmate of his, @bonjovey, in the meetup too! He said that he even barely knew her then, but Steemit gave them a chance to get to know each other all over again. Though I haven't had the chance to take a picture with her, I met the awesome @tegoshei there too. Her name keeps appearing on my feed and it was so nice to know that we work in the same company.

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from L-R: @josejirafa, @ybanezkim26, @honeyletsgo, @thegaillery, @, @maimaimaichan and @jassennessaj


Hearing what made the other Steemians join the platform allowed me to sum their reasons up in these 3 p's - passion, practicality and the people. I've heard of Steemians who are honing their crafts, investing in the cryptocurrency market, living their dream nomadic lives all the while not breaking the bank! There are others who stayed because of the people they've met, people who show support because that's how they want to give back and people like me who want to make the world a little better through our blogs. I got to know @jassennesaj there too, he ticks off all of the three p's by the way.


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@bonjovey's house interiors


Remember @bonjovey? She invited us to her house at Jardin de Busay. What started out as a cafe meetup to some place I've never been before turned into a trip to another place I've also never been! This introvert was way out of her comfort zone, but I was having so much fun. I didn't want it to end.

The Steemians dined on chicken and donuts. There's nothing like good food and good stories to unite Cebuanos. @xsasj and @rcarter though foreigners, were quite familiar with the culture I'm sure. These two made the night memorable for me as well. @xsasj was telling me about her life in the Netherlands and how she believes in living her life her way. She shared that she was a bit of an introvert too. @rcarter explained the complexity of the platform's technicalities in a simple way which enlightened me to some extent.

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Newly-formed friendship powered by Steemit


This girl, @honeyletsgo, made my night quite memorable as well. She comes off as a bubbly and cheerful girl but don't let her features fool you. She's a talented singer with a heart that life made tough. @ybanezkim26 and I look forward to catching up with this girl really soon.

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Karaoke king and queens


@honeyletsgo, @bonjovey, @ybanezkim26 and I marked our territory - the karaoke station! We ended the night singing OPM, ballad, rock, rap and pop songs. It was the first time this year that I laughed as hard as I did.

TLDR


Steemit means so much more to me now than ever. As this community grows, I hope I grow with it too.


Looking forward to more meetups,
@thegaillery

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Glad you guys enjoyed to meet up :D
So sad to missed the informative topics that had discussed..

I hope to see you soon in Sinulog event @thegaillery

Love
@micch

Hi @micch! Likewise, I hope to catch you there!

thats for sure @thagaillery :D

You know when I am reading this, I can hear a very calm and lucid voice. Every pauses and stops and the rhythm. it's weird. hahaha. I really admire your talent in writing @thegaillery. Your words reflect your personality. Thank you for showing your rapping skills to us. :-D

It's exactly what I'm doing right now. As I tried to read through her voice and rhythm, I was able to understand her more. Ig-agaw jud ta dzai!

Hey girl @honeyletsgo! Haha, thank you for your kind words. I can't wait to hang out with you guys again! @ybanezkim26 and @bonjovey :)

Nice seeing you in person, @thegaillery!
Sorry if I couldn't talk too much with you guys. Really a shy type but really want to engange. Hahaha!

I get you @rafael.espina! It took a lot of effort on my part to talk to our fellow Steemians too. Hope we can run into each other again next time :)

Interesting.. Good work steemians.. I enjoyed this meeting as i am there.. Thanx for sharing and that also good idea for steemins community of any region to manage meetings and stay in contact with each other

Hi @biyanoor! I think that meetups are an excellent way to grow your network and to encourage the community to thrive. Hope you can come in the next one too!

Yeah you are right..Thanx for invitation
God bless you all

Wow! You got to meet a whole lot of steemians! Too bad I had to leave early cuz i had to go to s friends birthday 😁

Yes @davids-tales, good thing you didn't miss your friend's birthday though. Hope to see you next time as well :)

I promise to join you guys next time. It's a missed opportunity for me but seeing how the community has grown, I know there'll be more of this coming. :)

You really should @legendarryll! @themanualbot predicts more than 100 attendees next time haha

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

It was really nice meeting you, @thegaillery! I really love how you speak, so sweet and calm. Hope to see you again and know you more, gorgeous! ^_^

You're even more gorgeous, @marysent! I'd love to get to know you more too, can't wait 'til next time :)

Awesome for making an effort sharing Steemit to other people.
You will help them change their outlook in life and enjoy Steemit.
And looks like you all had fun! Amazing smiles.
Bless you.

Same to you, @lisaocampo. Hope to catch you in the upcoming meetups 😁

Wow @thegaillery.. that was such a beautiful write-up! I enjoyed reading that :) I lived there in Cebu for 4 years while in college and moved back for another year after I got married. Hope we can visit again in the future :)

Thank you for dropping by @jazzybells! Hope you love Cebu as much as we do 💕 I hope you can get to visit in the future, too

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Well done @thegaillery!♥♥♥
Love the photos, good job talaga :) I swear to join meet-ups here in Manila next time! Argghh. haha!:)

Thank you @feye! Yes, that'd be great :)

what a great community steemit is

I totally agree @ghadaelsawy 👍🏻

I hope I will experience Meet-ups in the future and other events of Steemians.
Great to see you enjoying and learning from our tenured co-bloggers.

Have a good one
Keep Safe always @thegaillery
Much Love
@gerel

Yes @gerel! I think there's an upcoming event this month. I hope you can join 😁

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

So wish i Was be there..

Don't worry @khelechy! There'll be upcoming meetups this year. Hope you won't miss it 🙂

awww this is sad, i hope i was there to see you steemians as well!

Be sure to come in the next meetup, @xackycookie!

woohooo! Glad to see a cebu-kin going at it on steem! More power to you!

Likewise, @bryocampo! Are you from Cebu too?

Beautifully written @thegaillery! I really want to know more about steemit, and your post (and @ybanezkim26's post as well) made me realize that there is so much more to steemit than just being a social media platform. I hope I can join soon and meet amazing people 😊

So lovely to see you here @leanillegrace. Steemit is what we make it out to be. But it surprises me all the time. I'm sure you'll enjoy it here too. Just start and don't ever look back.

Nice, I wish I could have been there. Nice cafe too.

@mikej! I wish you were able to come too 🙂

That would be so much fun.

Wow great writing one..I appreciate to your post..Keep up it dear...

I will wait your new post ..Best of luck...

Thank you @nnajmull, I hope we won't let you down!

Yes my friend.

You are really doing a good job in promoting steemit out there.
I hope this would bring a massive development to the platform and add value to people's lives.

Thank you @skymath01! I'm lucky to be a part of @steemph.cebu's community :)

nice!

Thanks @harvz!

It shows that you are an introvert. I share the same sentiments as well. I will need time alone in my thoughts to recover lol. It must have taken a lot of courage to persuade yourself haha.

Glad to meet you, ate Gail!

Surprisingly, I came to the meetup without any resistance from my introverted self @josejirafa! Likewise, I was so glad to have finally meet you. I have one quick question, though. Why is your username @josejirafa?

Hahaha. Its from our Spanish class way back in high school. We were asked to pick an animal name paired with a Spanish sounding name. I chose jose from jose rizal and jirafa or giraffe since im the tallest in the group. I would like to believe that it resounds my personality haha. Ever since, it became sort of my "pen name" and I just held on to it haha

Nice! It's clear that you also have a knack for thinking deeply (is that a thing?) haha, @josejirafa! Looking forward to more meaningful conversations with you

As for confidence, read the following posts and its comments. Many of the solutions to this aspect is not in world curriculum, it is right here in the nooks and crannies of PH for instance.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@surpassinggoogle/steemit-s-untalented-is-in-beta-participate-freely-because-every-participant-in-this-contest-will-win-something-no-losers

https://steemit.com/smt/@surpassinggoogle/teardrops-token-will-be-among-the-coming-generation-of-smart-media-tokens-and-it-will-reward-proof-of-tears

Let me leave you with those two for a start. Look for its undertone, you will grasp why i left it here.

Oh i understand this word...Thanks for providing your valuable content....

I'll read them now, @surpassinggoogle, thanks for dropping by!

you really put effort into writing this article, great work! I really hope we will have the chance to talk the next time :)

Likewise, @m1r1. I hope to see you in the next meetups 💕

We also promote these type of meetups.
people are very emotional and it's work too high.
Glad you Guys
.

@khalodshabbir, yep, it's a lot of work alright. But, the pay-off can be high! Hope you can have your own meetups too

Nice meet up. Happy for you guys. My group is also had a meet up but not as big as yours. Mas sosyal venue nyo. :)

Hi @juwel! I have a feeling that your group will grow bigger in no time!

Yes we just started here. Most of us are newbie. So still learning here and needs support too.

Will help out in any way I can, @juwel :)

It's so overwhelming to know that we have a lot of steemit members from Cebu! HAPPY HAPPY!

Yes @smb14! The leaders expect it to grow even bigger with time :)

I was gonna talk much to you but you seem the type of just wanting to talk to familiar faces HAHAH but there i go, got to know you're introvert ☺ you kinda had my name wrong by the way hihi it's @maimaimaichan 😆 the one you tagged was my first account in which I misplaced the password. By the way, my brother @josejirafa told me few things about you connecting to your bf who's a friend of his so It was nice knowing and meeting you, Gail. I always misspell your name though. Seeyou next time!

Hi @maimaimaichan! So sorry to hear about your lost password and your mispelled name as well! I'll be fixing that after I hit reply😁 So you're brother and sister? Wow. I hope we get to chat more next time 🙂Btw, who's this Steemian beside you in the pic? The one wearing white?

Hii! I am so glad I got to meet you! We had a good chat together! See you around on steemit and I hope to see you next time!

Likewise, @xsasj!

It was nice meeting you Gail.. <3 Would love to talk with you more about a lot of things! ^_^ See you around! :D

Yes @tegoshei! I hope we can chat more in the next meetup :)

Hoping for that, too! See you then! ^^

you are an awesome person! see you around @thegaillery!

Likewise, @mikekenlytungal! Hope to hear more from you next time :)

I just missed a lot not being able to join the meet-up! 😭

There's an upcoming meetup this Sinulog, @wandergirl!

That's exciting! Hopefully I could join. Thanks for the tip!

The meet up was successful and Steemit community is growing bigger . :)
It was nice meeting you again @thegaillery and hope to talk more with you next time. I did not know you are also a teacher . :) <3 Anyway , thanks for sharing your perspectives . :)

Yeah, it was nice to meet you too, @joancabz! Even nicer was the fact that we're both teachers 😁

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I can imagine the way you tell your story @thegaillery! I could also hear your voice while reading your post. Ugghh I am so happy for you and proud of you! So far from the perspective of how I know you, I can tell that you are really glad you joined this meet up. Hopefully next time I could join, too. :)

Hahaha! You're the third person to say that @namranna. Do I really sound like my posts? Hahaha! Really hoping that I'll see you next time 😁

Hahahah you are what you write? echos lang hahaha bitaw, madunggan jud nako imong tingog hahaha ayeeeiiii

Hello @steemphcebu I was given the opportunity to read your post @thegaillery because this was resteemed by @surpassinggoogle and it caught my attention. I would love to know also the faces behind their names and to connect with them personally. I hope we can all see each other soon and for that I'm so thrilled.

You have an interesting name @ramaonehalf, inspired from the anime, Ranma? I'm thrilled to meet you in person, too 🙂

Nah I just randomly pick the word "onehalf" ;-) though Rama is my last name @thegaillery

Naa sad ko sa Cebu ron, I missed it. Sayang kaayu! lezz meet soon please!

Yes @ellamielle, there's an upcoming meetup this Sinulog I think. The core leaders were talking about it