Today, I took the subway out to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn to meet up with someone I became friends with over Instagram, the owner of Baraat Ice Cream. I initially just thought she’d be someone that I’d support as a small business owner and order ice cream from, but when we met and spoke for about 10 minutes outside my apartment building, we really hit it off; she’s obviously passionate about food. I am obsessed about food. What more could you ask for in a new friend? So we ended up suggesting to meet up sometime in the near future, and until today, we were texting and messaging over Instagram almost every other day and bonding over our mutual love of food and culture.
She’s way younger than I am, as I kind of expected given some of the slang she used, and I’m way older than she thought I was (she says I look more like her age — 26; I’d beg to differ!!). We talked about different food concepts, cuisines, travel in India, our families and friend groups, and what we’ve discovered in our roads to attempting to be entrepreneurial.
“I don’t know — I feel like my acquaintances have been more supportive of Baraat than my own friends,” she contemplated out loud while we shared takeout dishes at a local park from four different spots in the area. “Does that mean that my friends just suck? Maybe I need new friends.”
“It’s okay — I can relate to that,” I said to her. The funny thing is that I’ve gotten the most positive feedback and excitement about my YouTube channel, the whole idea of YmF, from colleagues and acquaintances, vs. the people I’m supposed to call my closest friends. I think I’ve always been clear about my intention and desire in this: I never thought I’d be some overnight YouTube star or influencer raking in six figures in months (and…. I’m not! Even close!). The real intent of all of this is to document and share my passion for food and culture through social media and video, and sure, if I could make money out of it at the same time, that would be amazing. But I do most of these things already (cook, eat, travel), so why not document it? I shared this with Chris’s brother at some point, telling him that I’d commented about my channel in group chats with some friends, who didn’t even comment in the chat, subscribe to the channel, or follow my social media accounts for months.
“Maybe they’re just jealous of your ambition,” he suggested. “That could be their subconscious way of showing it.”
I don’t even know if I’d call it ambition — I guess it is? It’s a hobby that I can share. I have scrapbooking as a hobby, but that’s more personal and you can’t really share that widely. I don’t even know if I’d call it jealousy — that seems to be getting a bit deep. I’d generally just say it’s a general lack of care… which actually, if you think about THAT, that REALLY sucks to think about the fact that your friends don’t care about your passions…
But that’s why I can relate to what my new Instagram friend says. It sucks when it feels like your own friends don’t care about your passions, especially when you know you’d support them enthusiastically with their entrepreneurial desires.