I have a list I like to call the ‘Life List’. Things I want to do before I die. One of the those items; to host an IRL (In real life) event. In short, an experience that brings people together.

Over the last few years, I’ve felt a strange feeling of disconnect. I found myself somewhere in between feeling lonely and not knowing what to do about it (..the answer seems pretty obvious now, haha).
See, the thing is - loneliness for me never came from being alone. In fact, I love my solitude. I love my independence, maybe a little too much. However, I feel most alone when I’m in rooms that I have no business being in, with people I don’t feel comfortable being myself around. That’s loneliness. Not being able to be yourself, or arguably even worse, feeling like you have to pretend to be someone else. Thankfully, I never let it get to that point, but I can understand why someone would.

For me, my alternative to that is quite simple. To spend time by myself. On myself. Working to become a better version of me. I like to think of my life as a garden and I’m planting the flowers that will attract the butterflies. It’s the law of attraction. Now, does this mean being entirely passive in this sense? Waiting for the butterflies to come to me?

One of the highlights about being conscious is recognizing our own impact on the world. How our mere existence changes more than we’ll ever know. Maybe we won’t be able to see it in a grand picture, but I really believe, we are happening to the world. Let me say that again, we are happening to the world, not the other way around. We’re already changing things by being here. And in building a garden, we’re creating conditions for something wonderful to take place - instead of waiting to see what grows.

There will be many times in life where you get a spurt of courage. “Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just literally 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it” (Name the movie). This little gathering was my moment of insane courage. This was me happening to the world. I have no regrets.

I always knew that I wanted to integrate some sort of community aspect into Paradyms. And TL:DR, Paradyms is a film studio I’ve been building for the last few months. But that’s the thing, I want it to be MORE than a film studio. A brand for creatives. Not just a production house, but a platform and space for storytellers, artists, and innovators alike.

I realized the first step in creating a community was hosting my own event. I didn’t really have any expectations. I figured worst comes to worst, it would just be my friends and I hanging out like we normally do. I didn’t expect people to show up, but that’s what happened.

There was a point where I had laid out all the name tags on the table and I was waiting for the first person to show up. I was really nervous to see if people would end up coming out, but they did!

Around 40 strangers, some friends I’d known from work, showed up to the first Creatives Hangout. I met Mo, who designed 3D abstract objects that reminded me of the Venom guy in Spiderman. Dante and Itzy who both shoot for Austin FC, follow each other online - but never met in person. Will, a graphic designer interested in life sciences. Drake, another 3D artist who worked on the Challengers movie. Steve, a software engineer who is currently in the middle of reinventing himself. Pate, who does magic card tricks. Jack, a musician and artist who just applied to be in Y Combinator. Danny, a creative who makes videos about tech! The list goes on.

Note to myself:

Reflecting on last night, I’ve realized I want to keep doing this. This has to be prioritized in my life and work. Creating community. Building new relationships and fostering the spaces to do so. People are the reason life is worth living. I don’t know where I would be or who I would be, without the people in my life.

So many people I haven’t met yet.