Who am I and where do I belong
Forgive the title – I’ve set myself the challenge of writing up my thoughts in 10 mins so zero editing can happen her. Done is better than perfect!
As part of my exploration of community, I caught up with my old friend Dave Erasmus. We became friends through the world of tech entrepreneurship and he in fact was a doorway for me into that world. We share an interest in community, in creativity and sharing meaningful experiences. Today’s conversation made me realise that he comes from the angle of bringing people together whilst in the past I have approached things from my Events Management background… and probably made things more stressful – for myself and others for which I’m sorry – by over organising and not trusting in people to create the magic themselves.
Today I told Dave that I’ve been researching community in a professional capacity but what I fantasize about are more personal communities such as building an annual tradition of camping with my oldest friends and their new young families. Dave picked me up on the word fantasize and made me aware of the image that word conjures; magical, fun, other-worldly. And so I endeavour to use that word and be intentional about the language I use when talking about the things I’m passionate about.
We also discussed the idea of communities needing dispensable leaders. I mentioned in a previous post that my Dad encouraged me to get a job and become indispensable but the irony of me becoming a Community Manager is that the greatest success of a CM is to build a community that doesn’t rely to heavily on any one person, so that it can evolve and survive whilst people come and go. I liked Dave’s way of explaining it – a table that can lose a leg, and a new leg can be put in it’s place, without the table toppling over. The balance might be vulnerable for a moment but it will stay standing.
Dave also asked me if there was a point of my exploration and whilst my answer is “I still don’t know” I do wonder if these types of conversations are getting me closer to knowing. I started out exploring community because it interests me and there was a desire to keep learning whilst on Mat. leave, to stay relevant and to hone my craft for future professional me. I think now it’s more than that. I’m going through a personality evolution. I’m loving being a mum but I’m also mourning the old me, that I know I can’t fully be again. I’m trying to find a balance. And through exploring community and fantasizing about both personal and professional communities that I’d like to build and be a part of, I’m learning more about which parts of me I like most and which I’d like to see more of.
OK my 10 mins are up and I need to post this! Maybe no one will ready it or perhaps just a few of the right people will and it will spark new conversations and thoughts. I’m always open to chat 🙂