The following is a story written by Kristen Andrada, a member based in Boonton, NJ. Kristen is a recent college graduate with a passion for bees and great urge to contribute towards a more sustainable world. As an avid Simbi member, she has developed “healthy Simbi habits” that she is happy to share with fellow members.
Hm, after doing over 50 deals and having over 100 conversations here on Simbi within a month of starting, I thought I should try submitting a post for the blog!
There’s a lot of good things to say about Simbi including the exchanges I made, the people I’ve met and have continuing conversations with, and even things I want to improve on when I’m communicating and making deals with people.
Here are the healthy habits that I’ve developed to make my time here on Simbi a positive one:
As you may already know from the wonderful, previously posted stories, everyone here is willing to give. And a lot of good stories come from their first exchange. Simbi is growing with more fantastic people who love the idea of sharing their talents and time with others. After using the site constantly, I felt that I had seen all the services showing up on the matching game. So I developed a new habit: every time I visited Simbi, I’d check out new services. Try it out! Right click and open each service that interests you in a new tab, and explore and favorite the new services. A neat function that Simbi recently added to the website is complimenting people’s services. So if you’re not interested in favoriting someone’s service, you can still let them know that you think their service is great! You spread the love and in return they may compliment, favorite, converse, or even be willing to exchange services with you! It’s a win-win for everyone—especially for new members posting their first service!
For new members who are reading this now, I KNOW for sure you’ll do your best to uphold your deals. But when the deal deadline comes close, or when you think that you’re unable to do it, it’s OKAY to cancel a deal as long as you have a valid reason. That’s okay, because again, EVERYONE here understands, hence why they’re here! The key thing to consider with Simbi is to communicate (which is sometimes hard to do when you’re caught up in things like me)! When you cancel a deal, be honest and tell the other person what’s up. Of course, make sure you’re making time for YOU and your life at home. At times you’ll find yourself too addicted like myself and many others on here! Let the person know that you would like to make a deal in the future if you don’t have the time now! A common mistake that everyone makes is hastily accepting a deal. Don’t worry; you’re not letting anyone down if you turn down a deal (for legit reasons). Remember, if you have to cancel a deal, you can always create a new one!
I’m incredibly grateful for Simbi because it’s pretty much changed my life. I’ve given my time to strangers on the Internet and it warms my heart that these strangers instantly become friends who’ll do the same.
Unfortunately, there aren’t too many people who use Simbi within my vicinity (Boonton, New Jersey) other than my friends who live real close by. So all of my exchanges have been made virtually or by mail. When I first started, there weren’t many members from the east coast in the United States! Now there are a ton of east coast people who use Simbi and are from NYC (heck, there are even people from other countries using Simbi and that’s absolutely fantastic)! I don’t make trips to NYC that often, but I hope to one day partake in someone’s services and travel to the city for that sole purpose! But my Simbi dream is to finally meet someone new, in person, all because of Simbi.
Simbiotic Stories are real anecdotes told by you and other Simbi community members. Tell us about your Simbi deals and experiences with other members. If your story is published, we’ll credit your account with 150 simbi. Submit your entries by starting a conversation with us via this link.
