Bekah and the Hashtags

I have always been fashionably behind the times. I am sure I've told you before that I tend to embrace a style as it sails out the front door and a new one arrives. This is true for everything from clothing to decorating to social media. {I may have been the last person on the planet to sign up for Instagram - and I haven't even dared to LOOK at Periscope. OH! And I skipped Vine entirely.}

Having opened with this disclaimer...let's talk about the hashtag, shall we?

When hashtags arrived on the scene, I felt as warm and fuzzy toward them as I did toward text speak. I never did embrace that. While everyone {INCLUDING MY OWN MOTHER} sends messages asking "R U COMING?" or "THX" - I was still typing out entire words the way my elementary school teachers taught me to spell them. {Pausing to remind us all that my own mother was just such an educator.}

So while I still typed real words, I discovered that in the land of social media, they had made a bit of a comeback, but with the resurgence of letters came a disappearance of spaces. Suddenly everything was all hash-taggy and I had to stop and read carefully to make sure my brain could still insert spaces as needed. WAY too much work, I decided.

Since I've never been accused of being trendy in any way, I decided to skip the hashtag. It would pass, I decided.

Well, there's certainly a time for us all to be wrong, isn't there?

I will admit that over time, some hashtags have grown on me. The hashtags that mean something have ceased ruffling my nerves. Wasn't that the original point of the hashtag anyway? To create a search tool? So if I saw hashtags for holidays or TV shows or even family names, I could handle it.

Then there were the crazy ones. The ones that could not possibly be a popular search trend. You know. Things like #whyintheworlddomondaymorningshavetocomesoearly or #ijustateapizzaandnowmystomachreallyhurts - just made me #wonderwhyintheworldwehavetoforfeitspaces.

Along the way, Ryan and I had a conversation about hashtags, and he started using them in verbal speech, except he got a wee bit confused on the name and started calling it a hashbrown. "Hashbrown I love you."

You can't be mad when you hear hashbrown.

So ALL of that to say...I have the privilege of being part of a book launch team. My first time ever to be part of such a thing. Kristen Strong, who writes for {in}Courage has a new book coming out in a couple of months. It's called Girl Meets Change, and I'm really excited to read it and to be part of her team that helps spread the word about the book. I interviewed her back in my radio days and found her to have the sweetest, gentlest heart.

Kristen encouraged those of us on her launch team to share photos on Instagram of things in our life that represented change - and to add #girlmeetschange to the photo.

Hashbrown help me.

So there I sat, fully aware that I'd applied to be part of this team and to help Kristen spread the word and if a hashtag spread the word, a hashtag I would have to learn to use.

So I posted a picture of my attempt at capsule wardrobing...and typed out my explanation of this change in my life...and then I took a deep breath and hit # for the first time in life.

I was nearly in a cold sweat by the time I posted that photo. Ironic, isn't it, that a book about change brought about the change in my hashtag usage!?!?

In need of a hashtag intervention, I confessed to the entire launch team {in the privacy of a Facebook group} that I'd just used my first hashtag.

Hashbrown no filter.

Hashbrown they think I'm crazy.

Hashbrown Kristen probably wonders why she chose me.

But I'm happy to announce I've used a hashtag three times now and the sky has not yet fallen.

Hashbrown relieved.

I still don't love the hashtag. But I'm glad I've been pushed to use it...and I'm really glad Kristen Strong wrote a book on change. I'm excited to read it and tell YOU more about it!

Hashbrown - please still love me.