Taking it to the next level…
Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
All hail online social networking! (j/k)
But seriously–thank you Facebook, meetup.com, Twitter, and all these other social networking sites for all of the new friends, contacts, relationships from amazingly high-vibe, health-conscious, planet-conscious people that I’ve meet, and that I get to witness meeting others, from all over the country and world. And you can have this too–it’s as easy as signing up and making it a goal to talk to/message/call ____ new people _____ times a week OR go to two local events in two months. Maybe it’s “One person a day brings raw food success my way”?
This week, I met Kristopher (below) through another friend, Teresa, through another friend, Terence, all from Facebook! And I didn’t just “friend” these people, I talked to each of them on the phone too :) Turns out Kristopher lives in the Chicago suburbs, relatively near me, and is a raw vegan ultra marathon runner! He’s 6′6″ too! He came over for a mini superfood party last Wednesday so we got to enjoy superfoods with another couple friends of mine and had a great time (watching some fun David Wolfe videos on YouTube). I posted this event on meetup.com. He’s up to great things in Chicago and I’m going to help :) More to come soon….
We had a Young and Raw mini-potluck meetup Sunday at Doc’s. It was so much fun to relax and connect with friends on a drizzly spring day, and the owner here (Michael) is absolutely amazing–so generous and happy! We’ll be coming back here soon for some more events too. I LOVE the friends I’ve made through this group so much and I continue to meet such bright, friendly, kind, ambitious people at each event.
The funny thing is that there are 248 people as of this writing in my “Chicago Young and Raw” group, and probably only 40 people have been to at least once event; there are about 25 who go to a lot of them if not most of them. Social networking sites such as meetup.com and Facebook and Twitter, simply aren’t that great when you don’t participate. And they can be the best ever experiences when you do. What if you don’t like the person or the group? Simply move on until you find one you like. Whenever people ask me “how do I go raw?” or “what do you recommend?” the top things I like to say are: 1) buying/reading a few recommended books, 2) finding a “rawish” eating partner you can have fun with in the kitchen or dining out, 3) to keep coming back to the events/meetups/potlucks, and 4) to find us all on Facebook for inspiration and communication in the meantime.
So mark the next event on your calendar and go! We don’t bite :)
Check out the green juice and smoothie line-up!
Sidenote: this place is attracting hordes of mothers with babies and young children! Doc’s Original Green Smoothie is a hit with the kids and of course, the organic juices, smoothies, and salads make perfect sense to the mothers :)
More in-person meetup fun with friends made online–Jenna Norwood has been traveling around to colleges in Chicago all week screening her film, Supercharge Me–an award-winning feature documentary film about the raw food lifestyle–and was at Cousin’s Sunday evening.
Funny–I had just realized night before that she was in town from looking at someone else’s pictures on Facebook :)
I feel that this year’s Raw Spirit Festivals and other gatherings like them are going to be so much more fun for all of us this year because we are becoming so much more interconnected with the internet. You could probably go by yourself and find yourself amongst friends you’ve been talking to and seeing all year long! One more note on my social networking rant (hang in there)–it is really taking the raw food movement and population to new levels. We’re having more meetups, parties, festivals than ever before, attracting more interested people, learning new things from each other…it’s exciting to imagine!
Recent Comments