Adam’s Weekly Blog: Growing Bigger

Another week, another blog, jiggedy jig.

Hello, lovely user and welcome back to my weekly blog.

It’s October! We all know that Halloween is around the corner and I for one have already spent a lot of my pay cheque on the bounty of spooky tat popping up in the seasonal aisles. What can I say? I’m a lover of the orange plastic things in life. I’m the Halloween effort maker in my home, that meaning I’m the one who decorates, I’m the one who dresses up and entertains trick or treaters and I’m the one who actually sees it as a holiday, while the rest of my family is grumpy that it’s not Christmas yet while watching the spooky Strictly Special and resisting the urge to turn the lights off and pretend we’re not home. Safe to say this time of year is pretty special to me.

I’ve been busy last week, meeting all sorts of new people and new experiences. Last Wednesday I had my social media management course alongside Neve from Your Protection, where I learned that BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING AND WE LIVE IN THE MATRIX (note: this may or may not be true); a big thank you to Rene for giving us his time and wisdom, and for driving me to the bus stop when it was over. I hope to use my new knowledge to give our socials an extra boost- so look forward to some cool new content coming up soon. I didn’t think I was all that tech savvy when I began this job, but now I’m making cute video clips to show off our advertising packages, and apparently making my sister’s hypothetical wedding invitations using our software… there’s a joke in there somewhere…   

But that’s not all my loves. I was present at the Your Protection/About the Town networking event the following day at West Lancs College, where I got to meet all sorts of local business owners and CIC’s. It was so rewarding to put names to faces, and meet the great minds behind some great groups, such as the guys behind Mates, the Kickstart team, who I have to thank for my job here, Mandy from Relax Kids, and of course Leighanne, our brand new sales person, as well as catching up with Rene and our friends from Your Protection and Bake Away. We ate, drank and made our ancestors proud, while sharing the stories about our journeys, our plans for the future, and agreeing to help each other out with our projects. I got a whole new article idea talking to one or two of the companies that I’m very excited to produce. I did my best to be charming and very nicely modelled our autumn edition during Bev’s speech, cementing myself as the About the Town poster child.

What’s more, it was humbling and refreshing to see so many of us banding together, sharing our experiences and celebrating each other. Our events will be taking place on the last Thursday of every month, so we hope to amass more and more individuals who want to network and catch up. It makes me feel proud. I’m not from Skelmersdale, but seeing the resolve to band together and build a community out of teamwork and fellowship made me feel like a part of the big family of our local businesses, and standing toe to toe as an equal with these successful people made me feel like more than just a kid in a nice shirt who has no idea what he’s doing; I felt like I was a proper adult- got a bit emotional actually.

And that’s the takeaway from this week. I’m a grownup, and I’m part of something amazing. I’ve started becoming recognised, as I become a regular at some of the local businesses and I feel honoured that people care enough to remember my face, converse with me, and value me as a customer and as a person, even those who don’t know me as someone from About the Town make me feel welcome. Skelmersdale has evolved for me to somewhere where people can care very much, and it’s very special. I’m lucky to be here, and I hope you all can see that too.

My blog next week is once again up in the air. I tend to get much more inspired later in the week because A: I can experience new things and form opinions as the days go by when I’m out of the house and B: I’m lazy.

I’ll see y’all again next Monday!!