I have some good news hiding somewhere in here...

It seems the harsh times are continuing. You all know the story about my laptop by now, but since then, a couple of new things were added onto the list. Our ISP (Internet Service Provider), God bless them, have decided to turn off our internet just over a week ago, because of a payment mistake. (long story), we’re all sick… again! First the two little humans in the house and shortly after, the big boring ones.

Note to self, never ever ask; “what else can go wrong?” again.

Because the answer is; you guessed it, s*%t loads! So quit whining and be grateful, for Pete’s sake!

But, once again, this is not a blog about complaining, in fact; it is quite the opposite. I want to share something very exciting with you, something I am very proud of!

Many of you may or may not know this, but I am a smoker, I go through about a pack of cigarettes per day. Yea, I know, it’s a lot… right? Anyway, the reason why some of you may not know is because I am a little ashamed of it. I tend to try and hide things that I am ashamed of, from everyone, even those closest to me, so don’t feel left out, please… You’re not that special!

Something happened last week, I was looking for a new laptop, you may have heard, my last one broke (okay, okay, enough about my laptop breaking already). Two very noteworthy things happened that I would like to share with you all;

One. I started uploading video on a platform called XOTV (oh right), the coolest guys from San Jose, California contacted me a couple of months ago and asked me if I were interested in uploading on their new platform and a couple of months after that, I started doing it.

And… The same night my laptop broke, I went live on Youtube to explain to my massive audience of 4 viewers, could be less, that I possibly won’t be uploading for a few weeks.

The Franz’s, yes, both the CEO and COO is named Franz, called me the next day and made me a deal; “for every creator you get to join XOTV, we approve of, we will give you $100 to your new PC fund.” I was blown away and still am. Since then, two of my friends joined the platform to help me out. Thanks Kev and Dan, I appreciate you guys!

Two. My friend, the Pastor. I don’t call him that, but I like to joke with him a bit. I was speaking to Marcel one morning, at the time I was looking at deals on MacBook’s. Apparently they are great for multimedia, which is what I’m all about on my PC’s. I told him that I am looking into deals, because I can’t afford to buy one. And that I found one on a Cellular deal that would work out roughly R700 (about $50) per month, for a MacBook Pro and 2Gigs of data! But, that I didn’t have the money.

An hour or so later, he phoned me back and asked if I had time for a quick coffee. I told him I had a meeting in 2 hours, so if I can meet him in 30mins, that we had a deal, he accepted and we met for a coffee, which I paid for mind you, no I’m joking, he did, I think. Thanks for the coffee bud. If I paid, you’re welcome. But, who’s counting?

Over coffee he explained that he felt lead by God that he wanted to give me R700 a month toward whatever I wanted to use it for, whether I use it for the laptop or something else, it’s my choice.

I was overwhelmed by all the love, all the people willing to help, and even though, to me, it regularly seems that I am alone in this all, I realize that I am not. There are many people out there who really cares, more than you know. I realized that I do make an impact in some lives, no matter how small or how few. The power is in the fact that I do.

The other day I heard someone say; F@#k the likes, if you can reach one person with your content and inspire them to live a better story, then you’ve accomplished something good.” You can guess by the swearing who I’m quoting, if you can’t send me a PM and I’ll introduce you to him.

I like this, because I chase likes and followers, but the farther I travel down this path of becoming known, the more I understand that the ones who’ve made it are right. It’s not about likes, followers, retweets, going viral and whatever, it’s not even about the money. It’s about how many people you impact.

I believe this can be measured in engagement, true and honest engagement, not that “copy and paste” BS we all get, every day.

So I’m not chasing that crap anymore, and I’m not chasing engagement either, I’m working for it, I’m nurturing it and cultivating it. It takes time. And I am patient.

And that brings me to my last point, which according to my planning for this blog, should’ve been my first point. It’s the thing that I am proud of, the thing that I was referring to in the beginning of this blog.

You know what, I’ll write about it in the next one.

Thank you guys so much for reading, I can’t wait to share the other news with you all.

Please check me out on my other SM platforms, my biggest footprints are on Instagram and Twitter, I’ll be back with the vlogs soon. Please keep an eye on any of my pages for more info.

Handles: @dievenner

Catch you next time!