I mentioned that I had submitted a spark for Ignite Boulder 14.
Though my spark wasn't voted in by the people of Boulder, one of the organizers decided to include it anyway. After stressing out about it for weeks, attending several practice sessions with the other presenters, and frantically finishing up the slides seconds before the deadline crunched down on our heads (my boyfriend and I were both presenting, there was some serious work-couch going on that night), I was slotted to be the first speaker at Ignite Boulder 14. Take THAT, voters!
Here's how things turned out:
It's something like 3 weeks later, and I'm still getting stopped in the street by strangers who need to compliment me on my talk. Item 1, I'm no good at compliments - not receiving them, anyway - so this is a pretty excellent exercise in how to be a real human, in that regard.
Item 2, I'm really, really proud of how this turned out. I researched the crap out of it (and half of what I learned didn't even make it in - there could almost be a Part 2.) and spent forever rehearsing it, so I'm glad it went over well.
Item 3, this was my first time being intentionally funny in a public setting. I was terrified. What if I wasn't, y'know, any good? If my idea of funny wasn't anyone else's idea of funny? I'm so relieved that people liked it.
More than that, I'm thrilled that people got it, that they get my sense of humor. That sense of accomplishment (and of acceptance) is huge. I've never felt anything like it before - and I'm not gonna lie, I like it. I want to keep feeling it.
I have no idea what the next step is in any of it, or where to go from here, but I'm moving forward, looking forward to finding out.
