Today is the second blitz day of the summer term. It’s the day where mentors, BA’s, team members and BANGS enthusiasts get on instagram and post how they #liveBANGS. This is my seventh term as a member of this community and I am just as excited to post as I was three years ago.

What drives my love for this company isn’t the shoes (although they’re bomb), it’s the people. It’s the friends I’ve made over the years. These were people I connected with on social media through a shoe company and talk to every single day, which sounds absolutely wild. That’s what I love about my BANGS family—the seeming randomness of it all. Except there isn’t anything random about it.

We are similar in the ways that matter. We are linked together by our shared desire to uplift. Uplift each other. Uplift entrepreneurs. Uplift strangers. We aren’t afraid to be open and vulnerable. We put our trust into an instagram handle, hopped on a plane and met up in Austin, Texas on June 10.

I spent four days showing my “internet friends” my home. We took Austin by storm in our laced up BANGS. We donated nearly 1,000 pounds of water. We ate our body weight in tacos. Most importantly, I spent four days smiling.

We came together in a weird way, in the weird city for a very weird weekend. There was a ton of sweat, fidget spinners, belly laughs and sunshine. After it was over, I was flipping through photos and videos we had taken. One video in particular pulled at my heartstrings. It was the last night we were together. In the video, a few people were on their phones, a few were talking, another couple reading and a few were playing with aforementioned fidget spinners. From the outside looking in, we were lifelong friends enjoying a Saturday night. Four days before that evening, we were “strangers.”

When I first joined the BANGS community, I was a senior in high school. I couldn’t travel my home state of Texas, let alone the world, so how could I possibly represent this company justly? Three years later I figured it out. When you use that #liveBANGS hashtag, you’re sharing your story. You’re forging friendships. You’re creating an adventure out of everyday actions.

Happy Blitz Day!

#liveBANGS

Alyssa