Being that people who blog are typically generalized as being internet geeks of sorts, I naturally assume that you all know what Reddit is, but as I tend to make my love quite public, it has come to my attention that this is not the case.
So I guess, yet again, that leaves me alone in my nerdiness. Now that I've typed that out, I suppose that the words 'alone' and 'nerd' do kind of go hand in hand....
Well let me introduce you, Reddit is a user-generated news links website, that basically brings all the best everything from the internet together to one convienient place.
The users (known as 'redditors') are hilarious, intelligent and awesome. My favorite 'meme' going are threads based entirely on puns, such as this one:
http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/dwpfs/this_girl_came_up_to_me_and_said_she_recognised/
I've been told that introducing people to reddit is introducing them to the end of their 'daywalking' days, but it's worth it!
Where else can you find pictures like this...
Anyways, believe it or not I actually am going somewhere with this...
So being that I've been single for awhile and somewhat sick of the regular dates and 'club scene' I've been accustomed too recently, I heard about a Vancouver Reddit meetup and got excited.
I thought it would be such a great place to meet people who actually share interests with me and who obviously have a sense of humor (I also kind of have a thing for the geeky-hipster types, so the fact that I knew it would be a room full of them was slightly tempting)
As this type of website is known for being almost entirely male dominated, I was admittedly hesistant to attend so I commented on the post stating my worries...
"Am I be the only girl in attendance? And also, I just have to ask, am I going to get raped?"
I got a few responses mostly saying some version of "
no, no we are all kind gentlemen here!" But then there was one that just simply said "
I can't make any promises"
I thought,
ha thats funny...but then I saw the guys username:
'imgonnarapeyou'
And he hadnt' just made the account either, it was a perfectly excecuted line as reddit is so famous for.
The funny part was that the guy actually private messaged me and asked if I wanted to carpool. Hahaha. I know I am random but I don't go thaaaat far.
So after going back and forth between going and not, my friend gave me peptalk and basically forced me to go. I drove the whole way there thinking "I'm not actually doing this, am I?"
Wondering who would even be there. Was I going to show up to a room full of 60 year old men?
I got to the place, which was a hip bar/lounge in gastown and sat in my car for about 15minutes before I got enough courage to walk in alone.
I love that I can do stuff like this, but honestly, in the moment it takes everything I have to actually be able to walk into a place alone, knowing not one person inside.
So as my heart was racing and I was regretting every second, the hostess said, looking around for my other half: "are you just here by yourself?"
Oh great, as if this wasn't morifying enough. thanks.
So I exlpain to her that I am here for the meetup, and shes says "ohh, okay, I'll get the waitress to take you over"
But obviously that message didn't get conveyed because the waitress tried seating me at a table completely by myself in the main restaurant (when apparently the actual meetup was downstairs). It was awful. I was literally just waiting for her to turn around so I could run out, but before that happened she realized her mistake (although I guess I can't blame her for not assuming I was part of the nerdy group of computer guys).
She lead me down the stairs (yah, they would place us in the basement), and I walked in to a group of about 30 guys (1girl) all looking at me like wtf are you doing here?
I smiled nervously as one guy offered to take me in, and bragged that he should get props for bringing in a girl to the group. I literally sat down as guys crowded around me and just stared at me. It was pretty hilarious. I even had guys high fiving me for showing up and asking what it's like to be a girl on Reddit.
I admit it gave me quite the confidence boost. I've never been in a situation where the odds were so in my favor. And on top of that, they were the most fun, friendly, hilarious guys ever! It was soooo much fun! I was mad that I had to work the next morning, as a bunch of them were all going out together and tried to get me to come with them.
I even met imgonnarapeyou, and he was awesome! I had to refuse the candy he offered, but other than that, it was a rape-free night! Success!
Overall the whole thing was way better than expected! I love when I push myself out of my comfort zone and it all works out!
And it didn't end there either, I came on the next morning to find 4 new private messages.
I could get used to that.