Thankful Experiences
This may be the shortest post ever on this blog. But what the heck—the blog is supposed to be about experiences. Critical Mass is a Canadian owned company, and Canadians already celebrated their own version of Thanksgiving—but it’s never a bad idea to think about something you’re thankful for. So why not now?
Here’s an experience I’m thankful for. I left home. Everything I knew—all my friends and family, everything I identified with. I left home to live in a city I never stepped foot in and knew very little about. I only knew that it could get “windy”, had “big shoulders” and that the people who lived in it were the some of the most down-to-earth folks you’ll ever meet in a big town.
Though I still consider myself a “New Yorker”—I’m thankful for the experience of shaking things up for myself and moving to a town which has been very good to me over the years. It wasn’t always easy and I still occasionally get homesick—but it’s an experience I’m thankful for. One that’s helped me grow in ways I never anticipated. Sometimes we have to look back in order to appreciate experiences for what they actually are.
So, what experience are you thankful for?
Last 5 posts by David Armano
- Highlights From Marketing 2.0, Paris – April 5th, 2009
- Friendship Isn’t Dead: The Strenghtening of Loose Ties. – March 19th, 2009
- Skittlemania Disrupts The Web (For A Day) – March 3rd, 2009
- Re-Thinking The Focus Group: Tropicana Design Flops – February 25th, 2009
- NBA All Star 09 – February 12th, 2009
Earlier this year I went to Nashville with my family and also put on a night of podsafe music.
During that night a gentleman stopped me and told me that he was a big fan of my podcast and that he had a high paying job with a company that he had just left because my show had inspired him to go back to school and follow his passion first and the paychecks second.
I was stopped and speechless because I had no idea that anything I said into a microphone might effect someone like that. The experience plays over in my head every time I sit down to record because it reminds me that everyone one of us can effect perfect strangers and you never know when that might be.
I’m thankful for that. And still a bit scared as well.
I am thankful to all the amazing support I have had through the creation process of the Interaction Design Association. The recent organizing of the IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah conference highlighted for me just how much support I have in building IxDa (not a typo, trying something new).
I am also thankful for having been blessed with finding tremendous mentors throughout my career. I’d be nowhere without them. Seriously, nowhere. (Robert, Challis, Jared, Ted, Kip, Bill and many others)
You can’t have too many people in your corner throughout your life.
Lastly, I’m really thankful for the experience of fatherhood. (http://flickr.com/photos/davidheller). One year in and while it is exhausting and challenging, it is the most rewarding experience of my life.
– dave
Some years ago, when I had only been working on commercial web sites for a short time, my mentor at the company I worked for left to start her own business. That made me the most experienced web designer at the company, and I did not feel up to the task. Even so, I forged ahead because I had to and ended up doing just fine. I also learned a lot about web site development in the process.
I’m thankful for this experience because it taught me that often I am capable of more than I think I am.
I left my hometown at the age of 21 and moved to Budapest. I’d been there before as a teenager and a child but I never imagined living there. It lasted 3 years, which were the best 3 years of my life.
It opened the door to discovering who I am, where I came from and where I’m going. I thankful for what Budapest did to me.
I’m also thankful for my wife, who at the time was my girlfriend, joined me in Budapest with 5 suitcases and 5 Canadian bucks in her pocket.
We scraped by and emerged as the people we are today with 2 beautiful children who we raise back in our hometown according to what Budapest taught us.
I will always be thankful for that.
David,
Used to live in Chicago, by the way, and this East Coast boy loved it. And that is one of the things I am grateful for–the experience of living in and traveling throughout the world. Great way to learn about places and people.
I’m thankful for my new experiences as a parent. I’m happy that I have a healthy baby girl that continues to amaze me every day. It continues to challenge me to make the world a better place for her, and it also makes me wonder how I can make the world a better, safer place for others. I can’t imagine the world without her.
I’m thankful to have discovered a community of contributors, instigators, troublemakers and designers in Toronto. There are a great group of folks working on things like UXIrregulars (Kaleem, Matthew, Audrey, Bryce), CaseCamp (Eli, Kate), the Overlap (Robin, Michael) and others. I’m thankful that they come together and share their experiences and knowledge.
On a personal level i’m thankful for two wonderful kids and an understanding wife.
Professionally, I’m thankful to have the opportunity to help create experiences in the digital space and to learn from them.
I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve been fortunate to have in the field I choose to make my career. Being able to spend the time getting to know people, and what makes an “experience” for them, has proven to be the biggest source of personal learning for me. I love the challenge of discovery.
I am also thankful, as well as humbled by the opportunity to be my kids “mama.” I have never known love like theirs, and am honored, (and scared) to be their guide through life.
Wow. These are really wonderful. I’m always amazed how people will open up if you extend an invitation. I should add that I’m thankful to be a part of a digitally enables community who is so giving of their time.
CC, what you shared is particularly insightful. Sometimes we influence people in profound ways that we could have never imagined.
I’m thankful for short, insightful blog posts like this one – a great reader experience.
Two inspiring kids. Amazing wife. Supportive family. Beautiful, energizing city (Minneapolis). The Internet. My old boss, Alan, for suggesting I figure out how to be innovative on said Internet many years ago. The nurturing and collaborative environment that is most of the blogosphere. All the wonderful conversations I’ve had the past six months since starting my own shop. For all of the above, I am most thankful.
What a great idea! I’m truly thankful for two healthy and happy kids who inspire me to laugh everyday for absolutely no reason; dance to the SpongeBob Theme Song every time it comes on and see a work of art when finger painting.
You’re right, David – sometimes looking back helps you appreciate the present.
This is sort of a big experience, one that has shaped my entire life and perspective…I’m thankful that I was given up for adoption. A lot of adoptees feel resentment because they feel they were abandoned. I could choose to see my story as beginning with abandonment, but instead I see that I was given a chance at life. Who knows what kind of life I would have had had I grown up in South Korea, with a mother and/or father who really couldn’t care for me?
I was so fortunate to come to a family who wanted me and did their best to give and show me love. (and they still do!) In essence, I’m thankful for my family, and specifically, my parents for choosing me.
I share the same experience with you David, except I moved from my nest in Nicosia, Cyprus (and Beirut, Lebanon) to come to Canada to pursue an education in Montreal, and then a career in Toronto. I’ve been away from home for almost 7 years now and I still miss my family and friends very much. I miss the security of a “collective” society such as the one that you can find in the Mediterranean. Having said that, I am most thankful for my experiences thus far in Canada and how those experiences have shaped who I am today and the ideas and thoughts that cultivate my mind as a cause of all the struggles and decisions I had to face. Its never an easy journey, and its still not easy given many factors (such as the weather– its damn cold!) and a few others.. but now I feel I can accomplish anything in life, and that’s something to be grateful for.
On a side note, I am thankful that Critical Mass adopts a culture where they go to bat for their own. I have experienced that first hand recently where I am now in a great place in my career where I am challenged on the daily.
I’ve got an amazing wife and three beautiful children that inspire and energize me (emotionally and drain me physically) ever day. A year ago a good friend of mine had a three year old daughter diagnosed w/Leukemia (http://www.kaeliallison.com/). The battle has been very intense. Last spring, my son (three at the time) began getting lethargic, not eating, and getting very high, weekly fevers… Testing proved that it was not cancer, but that he was anemic and we weren’t sure why… many tests later, the fevers were still there, the symptoms were the same but the tests kept coming back negative. I was broken to the core… Than one day he was just fine – the test showed the anemia receding – Today he is a very healthy, very strong little four year old. I’m thankful for that very trying, very painful experience. My perspective on life will never be the same. I will never take my family’s health for granted again!
I’m thankful for a doctor whose passion and love of children and medicine motivated her to pioneer a treatment for infantile scoliosis, a deformity she herself suffers from. I’m thankful for her design approach — very simple, basic and non-invasive despite little acceptance from the field ‘experts.’ I’m thankful for Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, and their kid-centric culture and cheerful services. I’m thankful for the doctors at Shriner’s who had the foresight and courage to adopt the new scoliosis treatment. I’m thankful for a beautiful, focused wife, who wasn’t satisfied with the traditional scoliosis treatment and leveraged technology and networks to seek out an alternative, and now in turn spreads the word and educates others. And lastly, I’m thankful for three vibrant, healthy children — a daughter and twin boys, one of whom’s spinal curve was corrected over 45 degrees and now is straight as an arrow with the best posture of any two-year-old around.
I’m thankful for the ability to take my 96 year old granny to lunch at my aunt’s place last friday- three generations in the car on the way there and four were present at lunch. These moments do not happen very often and man are they ever wonderful- to watch a woman almost a century old hold her 5 month-old great granddaughter was both inspiring and lovely.
Thanks for the opportunity to share it with all of you.
Cody,
Thanks for that. A timely reminder. Good friends of ours lost their 4 year old to cancer and will be having their second Thanksgiving without little Tyler. Your comment here made me think of this and as a result, I’ll be sure to reach out personally to them.
I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to tell my grandfather how important he was to me before he passed away. I wrote him a one-page letter that my mom read to him. He asked to have it framed and that I read it at his funeral. I’m ALSO thankful that I got through the whole thing that day without sobbing.
I have so much to be thankful for, but one memorable experience was meeting Fred Rogers, “Mister Rogers” of children’s TV on PBS. In his quiet, unassuming way, he got me to talk with him for a few minutes about my father, who had died a few years earlier. I was thankful for that brief encounter because my father’s memory burned more strongly inside me for many days after that.
I am extremely thankful that even though I lost my mother to cancer 3 years ago this Christmas, she fought for 10 years with the disease so she could walk me down the aisle and be present at the birth of my sweet daughter.
I know lots of people have lost their mother’s (parents) at an earlier age than I did so I am thankful for the time I had with mine.
I’m thankful I’ve had the unwavering support of family during challenging times in my career. My career path has been anything but straight as I’ve investigated a number of options and bounced (or been bounced) around. Each time, my family has been there and encouraged me as I sought my next opportunity.
My latest adventure has come in the form of working for a start-up (crayon) and has allowed me to explore the depths of my marketing & business acumen like never before. As a result, I’ve grown more knowledgeable and confident, knowing that wherever life takes me, I’ll be richer for the jobs I’ve taken and the relationships that I’ve made.
And without my family behind me, I could have never done it.
I am thankful for the ability to create something out of nothing…making the invisible, visible.
What a gift!
Wishing everyone a remarkable holiday season
When I left Germany 11 years ago to move to Los Angeles with two suitcases and a lot of trepidation as baggage, I never envisioned how grateful I would be that I made that step.
The Web helped me to move from traditional advertising to digital marketing and now focusing on conversational marketing. The Web helped me to meet my wife (Yahoo! Personals, baby) and the Web helps us to keep tabs on our little miracle (babyastrid.blogspot.com).
When I arrived at LAX, I was dreaming of my current life. And that’s something to be thankful for.
What am I thankful for? I’m glad I followed my dad’s only real career advice.
After working for 25 years for someone else, my dad went out on his own and started a business. It didn’t take long for him to see the benefits – forget financial, he was happier than ever. When I finished school and started working, his simple advice to me was:
“I’ll never tell you what career you should pursue, but make it a point to work for yourself one day.”
After ten plus years working at different agencies, I went out on my own. It’s been a little over a year and I haven’t looked back with regret once.
When I was in high school, my dream was to go to UC Berkeley and get a degree in biology. Unfortunately, I did not like to do homework and my grades suffered. Instead of going to Cal, I went to a community college in Southern California instead. After 2 years, I had a 3.98 GPA and I applied to transfer to Cal. However, during that two years I got married. My wife refused to move to Northern California and once again, I found myself attending that community college. A faculty member who had written a letter of recommendation saw me in the hall and asked why I had not left yet. I told him my predicament and he suggested going to UC San Diego(UCSD).
Attending UCSD was the greatest thing that could have happened to me. Maybe Cal would have been great too, but the friends I made and the professors I met helped me to set a course to get my PhD at Caltech. As Robert Frost said, “That has made all the difference.” At the time, UCSD was a small UC campus of 14,000. Now, UCSD has over 35,000 students. I doubt one can get the same access to faculty that we had then. Living in Orange County California, we always viewed San Diego as a less desirable place to live. Had my wife not pushed me to find an alternative, I never would have met the friends I now consider indispensable.
So, I am thankful my wife had the sense to make me look for a better answer, not just the obvious one.
I’m thankful for my kids (all 6 of them!) and for my wife, who was brave enough to let me run off to Europe to finish my degree just after we got engaged. Also for my wife’s miraculous recovery from a mysterious disease that almost killed her, and the resulting international adoptions that have filled our home with a bunch o’ love (and endless noise!).
I’m thankful, too, for some close friends (Dean, Eric, Glenn, Nabeel) who constantly push me to achieve ever greater things both personally and professionally … all the while making me laugh at my own humanity.
Thanks to you, too, David for this post and a much needed moment of reflection before the (U.S.) holiday.
I only recently joined in these conversations with an active voice more cognizant of the value of transparency.
It turns out that every online voice cast within these forums, that I have had the fortune to meet with in person, has been as bright, honest, and supportive as they have been online.
This year, I am thankful for learning the value of participation – both online and offline.
I’m thankful I found such an amazing bride who has, to my utter incredulity, agreed to spend her life with me; it’ll be official in all of two and a half weeks.
I’m thankful for my gorgeous wife.
On a slightly more prosaic level, I’m thankful that this post has allowed us to see the human threads of the web.
“I’m thankful that this post has allowed us to see the human threads of the web.”
Amen David. It’s always nice to remind ourselves that technology serves humanity and should not be the other way around.
This year, I am most thankful for the birth of my son – Henry James Dahl (born 11/16/07)
I packed my bags and moved to a new country when I was 18. Being far away from family is hard – and especially hard around thanksgiving and christmas when the world around me is spending time with their families. But 3 years ago my sister moved to USA. And I was lucky to meet someone who I want to spend the rest of my life with.
Also after spending 6 years in a different land, you tend to find nomads like yourself and slowly, over the years, they become your family.
So I am thankful, for the little family that I have here — and the new one that I’ve made for myself.
Have a good thanksgiving all.
Upon reflection, one experience for which I’m thankful happened in the spring of a year. I had neglected the roses and yet – even through neglect – they bloomed. They survived. To this day, flowering roses signify forgiveness. Forgiveness is a character trait to be cultivated. Thanks for reminding me of that moment, DA.
Personally I am thankful, first off, for my lovely wife, my family, my two dogs and my health.
Professionally, I am thankful for the true, supportive, honest friends who I have met since starting my blog. It’s been the single best decision that I’ve made in my professional life. Many I have not even met, but I consider true friends. The ones I have met have been thoroughly wonderful people. Thank you to social media and all that it gives by connecting us all.
I’m thankful for the guys at Modernista! on taking a chance on a Brit and giving him a chance to work at a great place and experience America.
And I’m even more grateful for my amazing wife (then my fiance) on taking the chance on me and moving her life over here.
I am thankful for everything except for taxes. Life is good!
I am thankful for the friends and family who support, push and surprise me. I am thankful for the openness of spirit and the generosity of people that I am yet to meet. And I am thankful for the opportunities I have been given and the chances that have come my way.
I’m actaully grateful for an experience I had last winter.
I moved out of town to take a job in a small community; it was a whirlwind of new faces, responsibilities, and heaps of boxes everywhere.
Well, a 6 weeks in and I knew something was wrong.
I loved the nature of the job, but wasn’t being allowed to do it in the best way, it being a small town with all the itinerant attitudes and mindsets that go along with that. Combine that with a highly structured hierarhy in the workplace that was not at all artist-centred, and… problems. 3 months in, at the end of my probation, I was let go, though I was ready to walk away too.
I lost my apartment, my job, my life I’d built in this small town.
Why am I grateful for such a seemingly-bad series of unfortunate incidents?
Because, in all the tough and painful stuff I’ve had to face since, I’ve become a smarter, more grateful person, less full of expectations, anger, arrogance, and impatience. I’ve learned more about myself this past year than I would have staying in that town, at that job. In fact, I am a different, better person for it, able to embrace the scared, frustrated, hurt person I was and move forward with grace, confidence, and love.
This past year, in all of its disappointments and confusions, has also been a circuitous route back to the same nature of work I had been doing in the small town -what a lesson! -but the difference is, this time I’m going into it consciously, eyes wide open, with a company I love and feel accepted by.
I am grateful for hardship, I suppose. It has been my greatest teacher to discover my own true self.
An experience I am thankful for? That’s an easy one – my family.
Even as an adult I continue to be amazed by my father (who’s birthday is today!) and my wonderful mother. And even the sometimes-annoying younger sisters have moved into a new status – I can now see them in the light of true friendship. I am so grateful.
My relationship with each family member has only deepened as we all age together and what a joy to have the opportunity to know them each as human beings.
(David – what a delightful thing to ponder right before Thanksgiving…)
Hey, David…You may end up having a cathartic therapy-fest goin’ here! I echo Catherine’s views a bit…I’m thankful that “crisis=opportunity” because every time I come through a new fire I’ve learned something new about my place, purpose, and presence in the world. (What we consider to be adversity in the moment often turns into a conduit for life change and growth.)
I’m thankful I ping-ponged to 9 schools in 12 years even though it was rough at the time, because it made me an outgoing personality and global citizen with perspective.
I’m thankful the ’89 earthquake trashed my ’88 wedding gifts and personal belongings to remind me materialism is empty.
I’m thankful my mom’s lung cancer put me in a force-field of zealous advocacy, to face down authority figures with strength, will, and vigor. (yup, including my own dear ol’ dad) I’m thankful I buried ‘Barbie’ and made some existential choices to leave the ‘shoulds’ behind in favor of authenticity and nonprofit fulfillment…
I’m thankful for boldness, courage, risk, and service. For without it, not a dang thing would get done on this funky ol’ blue marble of a planet.
Soon after I turned 18 I went to Great Britain with all my money (just a few hundred dollars), a sleeping bag, small rucksack and a railpass. I spent a couple months bouncing around on my own between England, Scotland and Wales. To save money, I’d alternate between a night in a cheap B&B and a couple nights either sleeping on the train run from Brighton to Edinburgh, in the arrivals lounge at Heathrow or sacking out on the floor of one of the many trains stations I passed through along the way. All total I spent time in a little over 30 cities and have seen many wonderful things that I still cherish.
I fondly remember the London police giving me a swift kick in the morning to wake me at King’s Cross before the computers would arrive.
This experience led me to trust in myself, my capabilities, and my ability to survive. Above all, it inspired me. I am grateful for having that opportunity.
I am thankful for the lucky star that let me live this life.
I am thankful to have opportunities to help people.
I am thankful to share fundamental emotions with others.
Experience emotions = being human?
Sorry, missing symbol :
Experience (plus) Emotion = being human.
David,
This passed Saturday I celebrated my birthday with my family (wife of 20 yrs, daughter (16) and son (17)) by going out for a lovely brunch.
Before I was about to go out to the car my daughter handed me her hand-made birthday card, which she stayed up most of the night constructing.
As I stood there reading her beautifully crafted card (she went on and on about how much she appreciates me), tears began to pool in my eyes.
What matters most to me is my family. Therefore, I am forever thankful for my wonderful wife and two fabulous children.
Cheers,
Steve
I am thankful that I quit smoking. It’s been over 5 years and I still enjoy sitting in the smoking section to catch some second-hand whiffs.
I am thankful for my son.
So many others.
Glad you asked the question, David, because I haven’t thought about all the things I’m thankful for in a long time.
thankfully,
betaBonnie
I too am thankful and very lucky to have walked away from a nest of love and protection and moved to Los Angeles. I was lucky and met good friends who taught me a lot and helped me navigate some crazy waters. Now happily back in Boston, enjoying life and family and work, I am thankful to be able to say “thank you” to those who have guided and loved me and watched my back.
I’m thankful for the internet, among many things. In particular because it creates a global village in a way nothing else can. It brings together people of completely diverse backgrounds, different interests, and different languages to communicate in a simple form.
I think, to a large degree, the internet has been a global form of transparency. We talk about corporate transparency (in an age where corporations are no longer able to hide their secrets), but the shields were dropped for nations years ago. We know about things that happen in far-flung parts of the world within moments. We’re able to talk with people who are there and help mobilise solutions when needed. We can keep in contact with old friends in real-time, rather than rely on postal systems that really haven’t kept up with the times.
For all the nasty things we come across on the ‘net, there is an aweful (intentional spelling: awe) lot of good out there.
David, I am grateful to learn something new every day thanks to my daughter, husband, parents and the amazing members of the blogosphere! Thank you, David.
David – I’m thankful for being alive at this point in history. To be able to have the knowledge of the world at my fingertips and to join in the conversation about what I’m learning everyday is truly amazing.
It’s allowed me to go from practicing law to running an advertising/design agency. Most importantly though, it’s allowed me to be passionate all day rather than after work (the only time I USED to be able to be creative).
Without the Internet, blogs like yours (and Bruce’s, Tom’s and Seth’s) and a healthy dose of curiosity, I’d probably be at my desk right now pushing paper. It has literally opened new worlds to me.