5 Years Of SA

#5YearsOfSA

I'm not participating for a title but I've been meaning to do this and I've been sucked into some other things. Whoops.

HI GUYS!

So, Swifties Amino turned 5 last week, which is crazy. I ed in October, that same year. Time flies by way too quickly. I hate it. I wanna go back to being fifteen...

Anyways

I really don't feel like digging up old screenshots, emailing them to myself, then saving them from my emails! But I can tell you all about my experiences!

If you want to understand how long ago May of 2015 was:

- Taylor kicked off the 1989 world tour on May 5th, 2015... And had only played 5 shows when this Amino launched.

- The Bad Blood Video was released on the 17th of May, six days prior to the Amino launching.

- Taylor hadn't even followed me on Tumblr yet. (Although it is weird that she's been following me since before I ed).

OKAY I'M DONE STALLING. LET'S TALK

As I mentioned, I ed in October 2015. More specifically, I ed on Speak Now's birthday in 2015. The calander says it was a Sunday, but I staying home from school because I was having anxiety (not the first time I had done that, and definitely not the last. We Stan a mentally ill person lol).Not saying the Mandela Effect happened, but it t o t a l l y did. I had heard of the app from someone on Tumblr, and I was interested.

Believe it or not, there was a time I participated in group chats! The first group chat I ever partiated in was a Speak Now group chat where I became friends with two girls that are no longer here. I wanna say VougeSwift was one, and the other one's name was Bella.

My first featured post was also my first weekend challenge. It was the Swiftie Show challenge, in which we had to come up with a show about Taylor. I was so confused reading it. Lesson learned: Don't go back and look at old posts.

I wasn't actually super popular here, until Summer of 2016 (prior to becoming a curator). I had participated in some challenges and events where I met people. In June 2016, Kacie talked to me for the first time. If you were loved by Kacie, you were loved by everyone at the time. And I was surprised she was interested in me. We bonded over mutual love of some punk- pop bands (such as Mayday Parade and The Maine.). Kacie has some very wild stories, it was really shocking. At one point Kacie, Sam, and Ali (? That's the last name I knew them as, and I don't want to deadname them. Don't hate me if that's not what they go by now). had a group chat and apparently they were all freaking out that I followed Kacie. (Even then I didn't follow a lot of people because the latest feed was Right! There!) Apparently I had a reputation behind my back and it was actually good? Sounds fake. Anyways.

Later that month, Amino introduced the group app, where all Aminos lived in one place. It definitely started some drama, and we were worried about losing older s to other community. We did. But we've also gained tons of other who happened to find us on the explore page. After we all moved to the group app, the peak group chat formed: The Juan Chat.

The Juan Chat is where 90% of my long term Amino friends live these days. The current Juan Chat is actually Juan Chat 2.0 after Kacie accidentally deleted the original when she got in a fight with another girl (who is no longer active.) There are currently 15 people in the Juan chat, but the only active ones are: myself, Rachel, Kenzie, Sam, and occasionally Annalei. One of the other girls, Marianna, is a rep secret Sessioner. Two out of fifteen getting secret sessions? Maybe we're blessed :pray: :pray:

I became a curator on August 4th, 2016, and I became a leader on June 28th, 2018. My experience changed after that. It became less about participation and more about protection. I've made less friends in the past three years than I did in my first year. The title intimidates people, and I don't really do anything to lessen that.

When I turned 18, I accepted that I was no longer a minor. That has also changed my view of Amino. A majority of our s are minors, and I don't feel comfortable engaging with minors that often. When I was younger, I felt so cool having older internet friends, adult friends. I understand there can be a very strong bond that comes from internet friends, especially if you're only a couple years apart. However, there are boundaries that need to be set. And let's be real here, I'm not responsible enough to be the older party here.

At this point I'm really just here. I happen to currently be on a social media break from the rest of the world, so I'll be around more for the next week or so. But normally, I'm just here to check on things, feature some posts (I have high standards though. It's enrooted from 2016 when standards could be had lol) and occasionally make a post like this.

Wow... This got depressing. Sorry! Amino has given me something good. But it's not as good as it was. Does that make sense? I'm thankful for every person I've talked to. Every person who listened to my Music because of this app. I enjoy writing short stories, or talking about what's happening with Taylor. I enjoy sharing my thoughts on things she does. I make edits occasionally but theyre never that great. And yeah. Thanks for being part of our little community y'all :)