These past two weeks, I’ve learned so much about the Denver community I’ve immersed myself into.
Mainly, that the community runs in small circles & people are well inter-connected. I went to two events last week where I ran into colleagues I wasn’t expecting to see; we walked up to each other & asked, “How did you get here? Who do you know?”
This is the feeling that makes me happy here in Denver: it is a metropolitan area (albeit smaller than SF & NYC) yet the community runs small like my hometown. I like that delicate balance.
Since it was my first time attending the event (and, on top of that, PRESENT at the event), I wasn’t sure how things were going to go. I admit, I was nervous and seems the other presenters could sense my nervousness through my tweets.
When I got up on stage, though, all those nerves turned to excitement. I presented with passion, zeal, etc. as I talked about my trek in life being Asian-American, stuck between two worlds. After the show, both strangers and colleagues came up to me to tell me how well I did. It was a new feeling for me; to have complete strangers walk up to me and tell me, “Loved your talk.”
I posted the picture above on my Facebook profile at the end of the night; this morning I woke up with 20+ likes as old and current friends alike showed support. Now I have everyone hyped up for the Youtube clip, whenever that will be.
My takeaways from the event: well, certainly this confirms that I love public speaking. Yes, I get nervous still, but it seems even the pros feel that way, regardless of how long they’ve been standing in front of others, speaking.
I am so blessed to know so many awesome people in Denver, though; I recognized people from the Denver Bee (late April). Even met a couple great friends in-person (finally) after tweeting with them for several months. I’m getting better at doing tweetups these days; I don’t feel it’s strange to meet someone off the Internet anymore.
I just feel amazed at how easily the Denver community embraces us transplants. I’ve only been here since last August and already I feel that I am well-known in certain circles. Am looking forward to many more opportunities to meet more Denverites in the coming months.
If you knew me from my hometown, you’d never expect for me to speak in front of large crowds. As many of us know, public speaking is the number one fear people have. People would rather DIE than present in front of others!
Well, tomorrow night, I will be speaking in front of a large crowd, and it’s all by choice. I’ll be speaking at Ignite Denver 11.
Why would I do this?
I remember even in my undergraduate days that I’d freeze up during presentations, holding my notecards so tightly that I’d wrinkle them. Yet, I also remember how I began to blossom into public speaking during my junior year. I would take the crowd by storm with this invisible force around me.
I did that at a pitch competition a few months ago. Got up in front of a small crowd and really put my words out there. And tomorrow, I’ll do the same, except in five minutes. It seems, when I speak about topics that are near and dear to me, I am much more effective with how I present.
After my pitch competition, I remember one of the other contestants basically said to me, “You’d be a great lobbyist, or politician.” And that just makes my head spin, thinking that a little mouse like me could ascend to such a public figure.
Well, now I must go back and rehearse my spark a few more times before I sleep. Anticipating a good night tomorrow.
Despite others telling me I shouldn’t attend a conference (“mini” one, at that) the night before finals, I went to the Coworking Space Ship, run by Deskmag and Deskwanted. Thankfully, the Denver stop was at Creative Density, a coworking space in town that I’ve been a loyal member to since the beginning of the year. I’ve begun to call a few of the other members my “CD fam” because I love spending time with them!!
Anyway, #CoWoSpaceShip was amazing. I love learning about new, emerging trends in the business world. Craig, the owner of Creative Density, was so animated and passionate about the industry (wouldn’t exactly call ‘coworking’ an industry…a sector?). Loved to meet the other cowork space owners from Denver & Boulder, too.
And of course, I was live-tweeting, which I have been doing for the DU Marketing Association on-campus just out of my own obsession with Twitter. Having the iPad has made me more enthusiastic about tweeting live from events. I just love sharing information. During my live-tweeting, I was discovered by a Brazilian coworking space, Pto de Contato. My my, the world is small!
The whole #CoWoSpaceShip night went “overtime” a bit as we continued asking questions to the local panelists and hearing insights from Carsten of Deskmag. I never knew that the coworking movement began in Europe, albeit it wasn’t coined “coworking” until 2005 in our very own City by the Bay (San Francisco). I never got a chance to visit a coworking space in San Francisco when I resided there, but perhaps next time I go visit.
I am happy that I attended the free event because I always enjoy learning new things. It was well worth the night off from studying. Besides, I think I did decently on my finals today. What’s done is done, right?
It’s been two years since waking up in the ICU, wondering why my head throbbed and why I was there in the first place. It’s been two years since that accident, the bills, the trauma; the memories continues to fade and be replaced with new, better memories.
In the past few weeks, I’ve shed away the final layers of that period of time. I’ve had friends tell me that I’m a phoenix: always arising from the ashes, becoming anew every time. This time around, I feel it is much truer than before; only now do I feel I have the wings to soar.
I’ve been here in Denver for six months now; most everyone who greets me with “Happy Birthday” today doesn’t know about what happened to me two years ago, how I almost lost my life. I’ve tucked that box away, taken my roots up from the City by the Bay, and have planted myself in the Mile-High City.
Every day I am here, I feel more and more at home. This is my calling; this is where I belong.
And this is where I shall celebrate many more birthdays to come.
