More mind talk yadda yadda but 1) my opinion on this continues to develop and 2) came up in my mind today due to lots of recent conversations with gals in the community.
I think within the past few months I've realized there is actually an importance to meeting gals offline, to the point I held my first gal meet today. I always said I didn't want to do it, but I made a promise and I was determined to keep it.
I think the online community is great, and I have a few great friends who are quite far, but when I have had the opportunity to meet up with my mutuals in real life, it's been so nice! From meeting with Erin, to the Boston gal meet, to meeting up with Lyn and Darcy, and Bri, and Nini, and now with the gal meet today. There is something just so nice to meet up with other gals.
The first thing is just... you don't have to talk about gal the whole time. Sometimes you're getting to know someone or just talking about the event or the area you're at. I loved sharing my favorite spots with friends, as well as discovering new spots. I also just loved learning more about people too! I think it's also easier for me to hold in person conversations vs text conversations, but that's just a personal thing.
Additionally, even though some gals style themselves differently, it's all so fun when we come together and just have fun. All the discourse of "who is a valid gal" and the demands to be seen as a gal disappear as we all know who is a gal... its the people at the gal meet. It does turn into a place of positivity and it's... REALLY NICE! I know this is sort of cheesy, but it's really true!!!
And I think that just kind of leads back into my point of... we don't have to prove to people we're gal. We don't have to demand respect from people, and we can just keep being passionate on our makeup, our fashion, our joy... and it's so fun. You will find out a lot of gals have different goals but at the end of the day... we're all here to have fun!!!!!
Life has been sort of stressful recently, but the meet we had today was really good... I'll do my best to blog it in the future. Maybe tomorrow? I just wanted to get some thoughts out hehe.
Building your community is one of the most important parts of gal for sure. We're super diverse in my galsa: while I lean in a more agejo/himekaji/glamorous style, there are also amekaji, ora ora, manba and seiso gals. And we talk about a large diversity of things! We support each other in many different ways as well. When I needed for a new job, they've helped me. I've shown support for the gal mama in the group when she needed. And much more. I'm so thankful for them!
ReplyDeleteI love this!!!!!
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