1. I meal prepped. I was doing so amazing at staying healthy and keeping my shape, and I feel off, so let me get back on. I meal prepped for two days, and on Tuesday, I'll meal prep for the rest of the week.
2. I accomplished taking over the world by 11. I completed whole group plans, and just feel in a very good place for tomorrow. It might have something to do with the fact we are out on Tuesday, but either way, I feel ready for tomorrow and that never happens.
3. My best friend surprised me with a visit. That's self explanatory.
4. A TV show from my childhood had a marathon today. Growing up Gotti was literally my life a chunk of time in my early high school years, and it's been ten years, so A&E is rerunning it to prepare for a reunion.
The marathon brings me to my topic of today - being internet famous and who I (we) were before our adult selves took over.
So, here's the back story to my obsession with this obscure show. I was and still am in love with organized crime, a huge factor in loving this show so much (they are John Gotti's grandsons + daughter), and I found any guy who didn't look like the boys that went to my high school attractive.
The show premiered and I was hooked. I couldn't get enough. I taped their pictures to my wall and notebooks, scribbled my name with Gotti added to it, but there was something missing. So, I did what any teenage fangirl would do - I Googled them and entered the world of forums and fellow fangirls.
I quickly found myself submerged in forum and fan life - making posts and meeting other girls who loved the show and it's tanned, obnoxious boys as much as I did. Then, one faithful day, I stumbled upon the fan fiction section, and took a step into the light.
A quick vocabulary lesson for those who might be struggling: fan fiction are stories that are created by people, but they use celebrities or already created literary characters. (Fun fact: 50 Shades of Grey was originally written as Twilight fan fiction.) I had always had a knack for creative writing, and I knew I loved the Gotti boys, so let's put them together and use them to bring the world happiness.
Months passed and the show got better and so did my writing and my relationships I was building online - I met some who were a little less than the brightest crayon in the box, but I connected with girls all over the world. I had friends from England, Canada, Australia, California, Pittsburgh, Jersey - you name it and I knew someone there. It was a great feeling to know that I had these real relationships that I had built based on three guidos from Long Island.
My stories were getting a ton of attention, as well as the stories by my friends - we were spotlight writers, our request threads were the longest, and we were being nominated for competitions. For a brief period of about five years, I was internet famous - thanks to fan fiction and the Gotti boys.
I share this now, as a period of reflection - thinking about who I was before my professional self took over, and who I really am at the end of the day. Watching the marathon today, and tweeting the girls who I met so many years ago, made me so nostalgic and it warmed my heart to remember that for a moment, we were internet famous. As I reread the stories we wrote then, I laugh at how absurd some of them are, but mostly, I smile and remember that nerdy teenage girl who built friendships that have lasted her a lifetime.
So, as I get ready for a week of my real life, I smile and say thank you to the Gotti boys for my moment of internet fame and my friends who have last far longer than that.
- xo, Lucy
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