Four years ago at this time, I had a bladder infection. But I have to say, it was a good bladder infection. By that I mean, it was the symbol of something honorable. I had been working non-stop for weeks getting NextTribe ready to launch. I was so consumed with getting the stories right, learning how to manage the administration end of a website, finding photos, and setting up our social media that I would forget to go to the bathroom. Hence the bladder infection.
We’re celebrating our 4th Birthday at a virtual Out Loud event called Invincible Not Invisible on Tues. Feb. 23rd. Speakers include Fran Drescher, Norma Kamali, and Maya Wiley. Hope you’ll join us. Details and tickets here. Use the code FRIEND15 to get tickets for $15 each.
When I think back on the time when NextTribe was just getting started, I feel exhaustion and a bit of pity for that self. I really thought I knew what I was doing, having worked in the magazine industry for decades. Of course I knew next to nothing, and I can’t count the number of days since that I’ve cried and cringed and dreamed of slumping on a sofa to binge-watch till my pupils turned inside out.
But I also feel exhilaration, remembering that sensation of being completely and totally absorbed in achieving a goal, that pride in learning new skills and concepts every single day, that special type of satisfaction when you get into bed knowing you made the best use of every minute you had.
Working on NextTribe has helped me grow in so many ways, but that’s not why I started it with my friend Lori Seekatz. The point has always been to help women our age feel heard, understood, and relevant and realize that there is still so much we can achieve and contribute and laugh about.
Laughing is a big deal for me. Even when I started–and it may still be in our story of NextTribe–I told of my mother’s belief that if you grow old without a sense of humor, there’s no hope for you. That’s why I picked the photo above for this story. That’s me in one of my screeching laughs with my NextTribe partner and dear friend, Lori Seekatz, at our launch party in 2017, each of us wearing our newly minted NextTribe T-shirts.
I plan on doing a lot of laughing at our upcoming virtual Out Loud event on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, which in my mind doubles as our birthday celebration. I hope you’ll come to laugh and be inspired as well.
The Highs
When I was considering how to mark this birthday, I started thinking of all the great moments we’ve had (and a few of the stinky ones came to mind too–the time we almost ran out of money, the embarrassing typos, the pox a writer said she was putting on me because she didn’t like the headline on her piece). I could never do justice to this journey, with its constant pivoting and adapting and re-shuffling, in this limited amount of space, so I thought I would pick my favorite images from the past four years and share them with you.
Thanks to all of you who have supported NextTribe. I hope as we continue to grow, with your assistance, we can change how our culture views this time in a woman’s life. So, don’t hold back on your dreams, smarts, and irreverence, and definitely don’t hold your pee. Just sayin’.
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