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| Wearing H&M beanie, Forever 21 knitted black top, and American Eagle denim shorts |
I turned 29 a few days ago and decided to go offline for 48 hours. You got that right, I was on digital detox on my birthday! :)))
The initial reaction I got from my friends are surprising. For somebody like me who breathe and live the online world (I work as a digital marketing exec), 10mins of not browsing my Instagram feels like forever.
But no, I actually connected to the world and realized that real conversation happens offline. Screw Whatsapp messages, FB posts which are always misinterpreted, and so on. Those who really care would pick up the phone and dial your number to say 'hey, you've been offline for a few hours now. everything ok with you?' or 'coffee tonight, we need to catch up' or even 'hey, happy birthday'. It's a very very simple gesture but honestly, these are the things that I treasure the most. In a city where everybody seems to be very busy, finding time and giving extra effort to communicate with people by personally meeting them only means that they really want to be included in your life.
There are many other things I was able to do when I was offline, to be honest. My laundry, fixing my things, creating more artworks, getting fit (by this I mean I get to walk in the neighbourhood), play with dogs in the park, take photographs, cook dishes I'm pretty good at, and reflect on how my year went. It's like I've been discovering myself again!
It's in the real world where you get to meet people and really talk to them. For the past months, here are some of the amazing people I met:
I met Doc Gelo, went to his book launch where he presented his second travel coffee table book called People, Places, Memories. See, the good thing about the Filipino community here in Dubai is that bloggers really support each other. The illustrations on his book was made by Ken and the layout by Yna. More photos can be seen on his post right here.
Was also able to meet The Travel Camel in a Tweet Meet at Al Ghurair Rayhaan where he shared a lot of things about social media. If you don't know anything about this person, you can check him out on Twitter. :)
And of course, Ayang Cempaka! This lovely Indonesian Illustrator who still doesn't know how great all of her artworks are. She inspired me to pursue art.
There are many other people I've met who inspired me to do things and yes, I will be doing more meetups this year and start featuring people and what they do. In the meantime, please please stay with me as I have lots of things coming on this blog which are pretty exciting.
See yah around Dubai! :)
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