Celebrate the journey
A version of this post was shared on Instagram + Prêt à Voyager.
I've been invited to read the CreativeMornings manifesto at their NYC chapter event on Friday. Things like this don't happen everyday, so I made a banana map to commemorate the occasion, and the journey!
This may just be the most extra thing I've ever done. (No, no one asked me to do this.) I took a cue from Tina Roth Eisenberg (aka @swissmiss, and the founder of the free, global breakfast series CreativeMornings) who keeps a drawer full of confetti for work. It was Tina who slipped into my DMs early in quarantine inquiring if I would be interested in offering a virtual version of their FieldTrips they'd been testing out. I said yes, even though I didn't totally know what I would do. (It would go on to include mapping your Covid commute on a banana, inspired by a student in my Skillshare class 7 years ago).
Little did I know Tina and the entire CreativeMornings team would show up at my Make A Map! FieldTrip. Not only did they show up, but they had a blast. In Tina's words, “My team LOVED your FieldTrip! LOVED! Anne is so genuine, warm, and good at this. She is all heart. Consider me impressed!”
Also surprising was that having a few hundred people draw maps on bananas (or oranges, or lemons, or sweet potatoes, or toilet paper tubes), would also in turn provide me a confidence boost in my own work. (Check out #MakeAMapFieldTrip on Twitter + Instagram to see some of the creative magic that came out of my FieldTrips).
It all became a good reminder to HAVE FUN and it's possible to find—and bring—joy even in hard times. Without leaving my apartment, my journey connected me to so many inspiring humans around the world, and tomorrow I'll "travel" to NYC to read the CM manifesto during their chapter event.
It's such an honor to have been invited, and by someone who has inspired so much of how I approach work (again, make it FUN). It will only be a minute of my life, yet will be the largest stage/audience I'll be in front of. I definitely didn't take a traditional path to get here, so it felt like the perfect occasion to celebrate that.
Tomorrow's headliner is Jocelyn Glei, who is one of my favorite voices on the internet, namely through her podcast "HurrySlowly" which is an ongoing reminder that it's OK to slow down. There will also be live music, and I have no doubt the CM team has cooked up other fun surprises.
All CreativeMornings events around the world are free. You can sign up on the CreativeMornings website to join live tomorrow. The main room is long sold out, but join the waitlist to get access to the YouTube livestream. You can always catch a replay later too.
You can find more of my workshops here, and weekly newsletter, Connect the Dots.