“My name is Blake Basil. I’m fourteen and I’m also a blogger. I swear, I can blog about literally anything. My favourite thing to write about is extreme sports, but I’m open to suggestions. Nobody knows I’m the person who writes those viral articles by Basil_Blake. Somehow, no one ever puts two and two together, but that’s a good thing. Sometimes, I even write about fashion and stuff, but I always say that those articles are written by my sister. New flash: I don’t even have a sister.
    I’m an interesting person. For example, I have heterochromia, so one of my eyes is blue while the other is brown. It’s pretty awesome, actually. Here’s something else that nobody really knows about: I have Alice in Wonderland syndrome, and it’s not as cool as it seems. I see things way smaller than they are in real life, almost like I’m constantly looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Typing for my blog is hard, but I manage because writing is something I really enjoy. Another fact about my blog, sometimes other people type for me. I know, gasp! But it’s true.
    Isn’t it strange how people believe my first name is Basil? I usually let people believe that because I don’t really care, but I still can’t believe nobody even thought of reversing them. People are interesting, aren’t they?
    I enjoy taking risks, life’s too short not to. This is the riskiest thing I’ve done in a while, and it scares me because I might get all sorts of hate for this. That’s okay, though, I’ve been keeping all of this in for much too long. Believe me, if this information makes me not liked all of a sudden, it won’t bother me, I promise. I forgive easily.
    Last thing I’m going to say here: be yourself. It will pay off in the long run, I can guarantee it. If something about me makes you dislike my writing, that’s hardly my fault. I’ll never blame anyone if I lose followers or something for this (although I sure hope I won’t, I like feedback!). Please, don’t let one little thing about someone completely make you change your opinion on them. Thanks everyone, for all the support up until now, even if this is the end of my Basil_Blake blogs.”

That’s what I typed into my small laptop computer as my newest Basil_Blake article. All of the above is completely true, and it was starting to get to me. The fact that most of my posts and comments on my blog said that I’m entirely open to the online community, but most people in my life don’t know very much about me at all. Because on the inside, I’m totally a hermit crab, never really opening up or allowing outsiders in. I expected my notifications to blow up with hate comments, but I never would’ve imagined what really happened.

Twenty minutes after I posted the confessions article, my notifications did blow up, but only because I was receiving comments telling me how brave I am for telling the world such deeply personal information “to better connect” myself with my fans. My Basil_Blake blog was covered in posts about that article simply improving my blog, not worsen it (as I had expected). I was smiling, and typing up “thanks!” what felt like a billion times in response to all the love. For some of the comments that went a bit deeper than simply saying “nice” or “I like it”, I wrote long and full replies. It took me so long to answer everyone, but I felt great. I wanted to take it a bit further, to show how much I really appreciated every aspect of what was happening.

A week later, I had a bedroom wall entirely full of Post-it notes. Each note was dedicated to one person who supported me. The positive comment they left on my blog was written on a Post-it along with their username, and stuck on my wall. Some needed tape to stay put, but it was awesome. I used all different colours, and it was like a giant mural. That was step one of my master plan to thank everyone in a very special way.

Step two would be the waiting period, in which I waited a few weeks until the buzzing of my phone died down. I expected the comments to stop rolling in after two weeks, but two weeks turned into three and three turned into four. It was hard, but everyday I walked into school with a look of pride on my face because I received more and more support every single day. Step two was easily the most difficult, because in the end I waited two months to stop receiving posts on my blog daily.

Once I had as many of the posts and usernames as I could fit on my wall (I still got more every few days, but some had to be left out), it was time for step three. I shoved myself against the wall opposite to the one with the Post-its and took a photo on my phone. It was beautiful. I went online, to my blog. I pressed the “create post” button. I uploaded the picture of my wall, and added some info beneath.

    “I can’t believe this happened, you guys. Seriously. I’m amazed. I did try to reply to all of you who commented very nice things, but I felt like I needed more to really show my appreciation for me, a person who just wanted to be honest.
    So, to do just that, I added every single awesome comment to a sticky note along with the username of the person who commented it. I stuck them all on my wall. There is over one thousand notes plastered and layered on my wall, and I love it. I can’t possibly thank you all enough.
    I posted the pic I took of all those epic posts, but since all the writing is tiny and the photo is small beyond recognition, I took care to write down every single username in a journal so I can tag each and every one of you who cared enough to support me in the first place. So without further ado, I thank…”

I then proceeded to add hundreds of usernames to that post on my blog, with the hopes that for those who supported me (just for being me) would get the recognition they very much deserved.