“because mommy needs a goal”
I’m not sure why I’m so surprised by the following realization, but the fact that I continue to find out new things about myself makes me incredibly happy and makes me optimistic about entering my forties and fifties.
Growing up under the shadow of the baby boomers, I was under the impression that I would peak in my early 20s and everything after that would be a slow decline - in health and in happiness - until death. My study of student protest leaders in the 1960s magnified this impression - looking at how they aged (or didn’t in some cases) wasn’t all that pleasant.
I struggled through my teens and twenties with figuring out who I was, and in the back of my mind was always the refrain that I never wanted to be “one of those people” (who woke up early to fly model airplanes, or who packed the same lunch every day or who never moved from their hometown for example.) I started to let those ideas go as I began to become more comfortable with who I actually was instead of defining myself by what I wasn’t.
And now, now I’m beginning to expand my idea of what I’m capable of. I never knew I could be the kind of woman who … run 5 miles, can do a high ropes course, likes beets! My husband reinforced this for me last week, when explaining to our son Alex why I had to go to Boston to run this race. “Because mommy needs a goal, something she can mark on a calendar and work towards and feel good about herself for reaching.” [slap hand to forehead, yell Wow, you're right] How could I not have recognized this about myself before?
Just imagine what other cool things I can learn about myself as I set new goals and explore new possibilities.
My next goal? I’m going to start doing some hill training so I can the snowshoeing 5k this winter, and I’d like to get back to my yoga practice? Maybe 50 sessions in 60 days? Sounds doable to me.
What about you, did you ever imagine you could be the kind of person who ….?
How Women Use Social Media
Chris Brogan writes a lot. Almost every day he has a post that catches my eye, about two or three times a week there is a post that I drop what I’m doing to read, and then there are days like today, where I spent some time in his archives getting ready for a presentation I’m doing on Tuesday*
As I was researching, I kept coming back to his top post on “100 blog topics I hope you’ll write”. I could probably write a post about 40% of them, but the one that interested me the most was “How Women Use Social Media.”
Do we really use it all that differently then men? Why isn’t one of the 100 topics, How Men Use Social Media? That started me thinking about some of the social media evangelists that I follow - who all tend to men - and the women who use social media to strengthen their community.
Knitters took to the blogging world early, I remember reading knitting blogs on 9/11, and knitters immediately finding ways to connect and care for each other. The first podcast I listened to was KnitCast, the first place I looked for in Second Life was a hangout for knitters. And it isn’t just about the yarn or the patterns, but it is an assumed community that provides intimate and immediate access. In contrast to the men’s communities I follow, there is little talk of reaching a new audience, turning people on to what is hip or happening. We seek each other out, pass the word along and network among ourselves, and celebrate when a new member wanders in and joins the tribe. And there is now a huge economic component as well, Etsy - like Ebay for crafters, lists 14,036 different hand dyed or hand spun yarns for sale from individual sellers, who work the social media like seasoned pros, send a skein of yarn to top blogger or podcaster and if she likes it, you’ll find yourself with a backlog of orders, your credit card processing company may even shut you down because they doubt anyone could actually be selling that much yarn.
Right now, I’m on a wait list to get into a group called “Ravelry” - a facebook type site for knitters. Raverly is a closed social network, and to control their growth they are slowly adding knitters from a wait list. Ready for this? They are now inviting 500-600 users a day. I just went and looked myself up on the wait list and this is what they said:
Photo by squirrel cottage
- You signed up on August 22, 2007
- You are #27,685 on the list.
- 12454 people are ahead of you in line.
- 6732 people are behind you in line.
- 43% of the list has been invited so far
Do you think this is just about yarn? I don’t — I think this is about community, and so when I see the question “How do women use social media”, my answer is, how don’t we? Maybe we spend less time talking about and and more time just doing it.
—
*Berkshire Cultural Resource Center’s Nonprofit Management Series - 9/25 Online Marketing: Getting Real Results in the Virtual World
Panelists: Joshua Field, Graphic Designer & Owner, Orbit Visual Communications; Bill Reichblum, Founder and President, KadmusArts.com; Amy Stevens Webmaster, MCLA
Too good to pass up
Vandalism is never funny, especially library vandalism, especially vandalism at the Boston Public Library - a fine institution where I spent many an hour trolling for handsome graduate students. And yet somehow, the Boston Globe’s coverage of today’s incident left me in giggles. Located about half way down “Christ statue vandalized at library, Lucifer left untouched” was this gem:
Run Amy Run
Dear Friends and Family,
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in not knowing anyone directly affected by breast cancer – I’d have to go out two or three degrees of separation to find a breast cancer survivor. Since I’m adopted, it is quite possible that I am at an increased risk of getting the disease, but of course, none of us (not even men!) is immune to the risk.
On my 38th birthday this summer, I couldn’t run for 2 minutes straight, let alone a 5k. I wanted to change that. I began a couch-to-5k program on a Monday, and on Tuesday found out about the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure – a 5k race to raise money to prevent, treat and cure breast cancer.
In the past three months, I’ve been training daily, slowly increasing my run-to-walk ratio, and yesterday I did my first full practice 5k – without walking once!
If you are like me, you hate asking people for money. But the theme of this year’s race is “Friends Asking Friends” and I hope that you will indulge me in this one request.
As part of the Race, I’ve created my own Personal Pledge Page to which you can make a pledge of $25, $50, $100 or any amount (could you give up the cost of a cup of coffee, a pack of smokes, a book or even a skein or sock yarn, for example?) Simply follow the link or you can visit www.komenmassrace.org and then click the “Donate to a Participant” link (left side) and search for my name.
Thanks for all your support!
Amy
back in the saddle again
