Becoming a YouTuber?!

Chapter 29: The American election is looming

Warning: Sadness over the outcome of the American election 2016

"Do you know what this invite is about?" I asked Nate as I held out the fancy embossed envelope from his PO Box. It was addressed to the both of us but I hadn't opened it yet. All I could gather was that it had something to do with Instagram.

I had now had Instagram for nearly two years and I had to admit that after my blog and YouTube channel, it was my favourite social media. I followed so many amazing photographers on there and I had gotten numerous photo shoot jobs based on the photos I posted and my account was just shy of reaching a million followers. 

It was probably the account I was most active on, uploading averagely ten photos over a week. It was a space where I didn't worry too much about continuity and just posted whatever photos didn't fit into to a proper blog post. Yet I somehow seemed to have accidentally made a theme throughout, as my eye seemed to prefer one particular style naturally. 

"I don't know. Why don't you open it?" Nate answered absentmindedly while he tore into a package that looked like it contained a gadget. Nate was a sucker for gadgets and he loved trying all the new things that were constantly invented. I half joked that we needed a separate room just for all his "toys" and I wasn't far off as they took up so much space in his home office. 

It had been a tradition for us to go through Nate's PO Box every Sunday morning unless either of us had other plans. We tried to keep our Sundays free for each other but events could always pop up here and there. Nate got invited to so many things that he had to turn down the majority of them just because of scheduling conflicts, though he'd often try to make several events in the same night if he deemed them important. His old friends from school would often want to hang out or some of the YouTuber boys who lived in London. He was often buzzing off unless he made the conscious decision to stay home with me, which he thankfully did quite often. 

I was always a priority in his planning, just like he was in mine. We'd been together for so long now that we'd gotten used to thinking of us as a unit as well as individuals. 

I opened the envelope and found a nicely made letter inside inviting both of us to an event hosted by Instagram early next month and when I saw the date I realised it was the same day as the American election. 

"Instagram is hosting some kind of event, though it's pretty vague. They want us to be a part of it because of our big following on the platform. Is it one of those events where a company just shows appreciation for the quote-on-quote famous users because they're bringing activity to the platform?"

"Probably," Nate agreed and fidgeted with what looked like a miniature drone in his hands. "But I like Instagram and you love it and those events are always fun and a good opportunity to network and hang out with friends. What day is it?"

"8th of November," I told him. I didn't really feel comfortable being classified in as a "famous user" but I couldn't deny that I got a lot of responses and likes on the photo-sharing site. 

I often wondered why I hadn't made an account before because it was the perfect way to share my photos and a lot of photographers used it professionally. I guess I had just been terrified of sharing too much on social media initially, which was funny when you considered I'd fallen into a career path that required me to do just that. 

"In the evening?" Nate asked and I nodded. "Damn, I can't go. I have a dinner with all my colleagues from Canon. It's supposedly informal but we'll be talking about the new range."

"That's okay, I'm sure it's overhyped anyway," I said, quickly brushing it off. I didn't like going to events without having someone with me like Nate, Emma or Megan to make sure I could get out if I suddenly felt unwell.