I had enjoyed posting on TikTok two to three times a week just for fun, but I had never once thought one would go viral.

My friend Genevieve and I were just scrolling through TikTok when we heard a sound we thought was funny. The idea behind the viral suitcase video we created was actually very random and wasn’t something I thought about beforehand. We noticed the sound of Barron Trump saying “I like my suitcase” trending and just saw other random videos of the sound. I don’t remember what it was, but all of a sudden I just had the idea to climb inside a suitcase. And so I just got out of bed and left Genevieve sitting there while I went and climbed in the suitcase all by myself. I then yelled at her to come and we just made that TikTok.

When I first saw our video getting views, I didn’t truly believe it. We figured it would get a decent amount of likes because we thought it was pretty funny, but once it hit like 20,000 likes that night, we were surprised. Then, the next day, we woke up and saw around a million people had liked it and were so shocked. We were just there thinking like, no way this is real. We definitely didn’t think it would get 7.2 million likes and be seen by over 40 million people.

It was also weird because people I knew reached out to me even though I was not necessarily close friends with them or knew them very well. When I first posted the video before it blew up, I had people texting me and saying we were going to go viral. I didn’t think much of these messages and never believed them.

I didn’t hear this but supposedly when we were dancing at the basketball game people were screaming “Where’s your suitcase?” It was just interesting to have people reach out to me and also the attention we were getting in person with others.

My sister took pictures of Genevieve and me as we were filming the video because she thought it was funny and sent them to my mom. My dad was there looking at the pictures just shaking his head and he was like, “Nobody thinks you’re funny.” He thought it was funny also, but more like a disappointed funny. But apparently, my dad was wrong and people do think I’m funny. My mom is hoping we get suitcase PR because she’s convinced I stretched out the suitcase, so I’m not sure how to take that comment.

Once I saw other people getting in their own suitcases, it brought me so much joy to see others having fun. I just found so much humor in the fact that Genevieve and I had started the trend. Like it was just truly unbelievable that so many people had seen our video and that they decided to recreate it on their own.

After I filmed and posted the suitcase TikTok, I continued to post on the app for fun. I had a couple of videos get some attention, but not quite like the suitcase video. I plan to keep posting on TikTok for fun as long as it doesn’t get banned.

This experience was definitely unique and will be something I always remember.