Thank You Notes

I adore being around fellow creatives. Whether I’m enjoying lunch with just one friend (bouncing ideas off of each other and sharing goals, dreams, and suggestions) or spending time in a huge group of people with varying creative skills and volume levels (as I did over the weekend in Texas) I almost always leave inspired and ready to tackle my own planned projects or create new ones with fresh ideas from friends who are always thinking.

I went into last weekend only knowing about half of the women in the house and made fast friends with the rest. One of those was Nancy of Midlife Mixtape, who I feel like I have known well for years but we’ve only interacted online and never before in person. I feel a very strong connection to Nancy for a bunch of reasons in addition to the fact that we share lots of the same friends and a deep love for music. (She loves it more; I mean, it’s her brand after all.)

I spent some time talking with Nancy on the back patio Saturday and she was telling me about how, in the year leading up to her fiftieth birthday, she decided to write fifty thank you notes to people who had made a difference in her life. When she finished, she mailed most of the letters but put them all in a book that she has as a keepsake. She described the scope of the project and told me about a few of the letters, and I was hooked on the idea. This activity is right up my alley; what a great exercise it will be for me to focus on the people who have helped make me who I am today. (Nancy wrote about it, too, if you’d like to read her perspective.) As an added bonus, I have exactly fifty weeks until my fiftieth birthday so if I start right away, I can work at a comfortable one-letter-per-week pace while still having time to double up if I need to when life gets in the way.

Nancy and I talked about other things too over the weekend, of course, and I even displayed my mad rap skills for her in a private concert, accompanying Adam Ant on his song “Ant Rap”. No, there is no video.

On that note, there are no pictures, either; hundreds of photos were taken over the weekend but not a single one of just Nancy and me. I decided to create my own primitive mashup for posterity, and I do mean primitive. I couldn’t have done it quicker or messier. Nobody in the graphic design industry needs to worry about me coming in and taking their job, that’s for sure. Apologies to the birthday girl who I cropped. As Heidi Klum says, one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.

Nancy and Melisa

Thank you for adding so much to my weekend, Nancy. I can’t wait until our paths cross in real life again! And now I’m off to make my thank you note list.

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