I spent my April vacation in Seattle, Orlando, and San Francisco.
I was away from my family, which was hard. The trip was profitable and worthwhile, but flying from one coast to the other four times is a lot, and seven days on the road can be very lonely.
Happily, I wasn’t as lonely as I feared when first planning this trip.
I spent my first evening in Seattle having dinner with a friend named Craig, whom I’ve gotten to know over the past year on my Storyworthy platform. Craig is, among other things, a storyteller. He just won his first Moth StorySLAM. We talked about our lives, our families, and mostly storytelling.
Before dropping me off at my hotel, Craig handed me a six-pack of Diet Coke and a six-pack of sugar-free Hires root beer,
I felt so seen.
On Wednesday night, I attended a client dinner in Orlando and found myself sitting next to a man from Boston who is married to a woman who grew up in West Hartford.
We had a lot to talk about.
Not exactly a friend, but a small world connection for sure.
On Thursday night, I met a man named John, whom I know via the internet and storytelling. John found out I would be in San Francisco through his niece, who was attending the leadership session I was teaching the next day.
Even smaller world.
So John invited me to join him at the San Francisco Moth StorySLAM in Berkeley. He goes to The Moth with a large crew of storytelling fans, so I took an Uber over the Bay Bridge, grabbed a taco from the truck outside the theater, and joined his friends for the show.
Great people who love to get together to hang out, listen to, and tell stories.
I have a similar gang of friends who trek with me to Boston and New York regularly for shows. I understood John’s friends immediately.
The theater was fantastic.
I also managed to get onstage, tell a story, and win, too.
Winning is always a bonus.
Then the show’s outstanding host, Corey Rosen, drove me back to my hotel. We talked about storytelling, creative pursuits, and more.
On Friday, I joined my friend Masha for dinner at a restaurant on the bay. I met Masha while working with her at Slack and Salesforce, but I hadn’t seen her since Elysha and I attended her wedding almost two years earlier, so it was great to spend time with her again.
My chicken still had its feet and toenails, but otherwise, it was a fantastic evening spent in the company of a dear friend.
I also rode in my first Waymo self-driving car and my first trolley car on the trip.
I missed Elysha and the kids dearly.
Being away for a week is hard.
But happily, I’ve managed to make and fine friends around the country via the power of the internet.
Had the internet not existed, I would’ve never connected with Craig, John, or Masha. They would be complete strangers to me today.
This connected world has its problems, especially when people use it to remain home, away from people and places, or organize in terrible and destructive ways, but it has also brought so many new people into my life.
Happy to be home with the people I love most, but also happy to have memories of time spent around the country with friends old and new.
