I’m really glad that I talked with Jay about how stagnant I’ve been feeling lately. As I mentioned earlier, he told me that since it didn’t seem like any new opportunities were coming to me, I should use this interim time to create an opportunity and spend some time working on personal projects to help me feel better. I spent the rest of the evening thinking about this.
This was mid-last week. The day after we had this discussion, I listened to the very last Media Junkyard episode with Rob and Kolkie. Towards the end of it, they had the following exchange. The timing of it was perfect, so I took it as a sign.
Kolk: “You have these conversations with other folks and it’s like, ‘Wait, you met these people on the Internet?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, you don’t understand!’ Then you have to talk about what a podcast is. But, you feel like no matter how you try to explain it to someone, the weight isn’t there. The importance isn’t there.”
Rob: “Saying that you met someone on the Internet – even to this day – it still has some kind of weird connotation to it. People are like, ‘Oh. The Internet…’ Even though it shouldn’t be like that and for a lot of people, it’s not. Then you have to explain everything and there’s no simple way to explain it.”
Kolk: “The other day, I realized that, you know, what if…? What if we didn’t do the show? Or we didn’t agree to go down to Raleigh [for the Autism Speaks Podcast in 2009]? We didn’t meet Skypeck and Robin? These are all huge ‘what if’s?’. We would’ve never gone to Comic Con; we would’ve never had those experiences. We wouldn’t have met Adam and I wouldn’t have come out to visit Adam [in California]. I wouldn’t be where I am right now [living in the Bay Area]. I would be in NY with the grind and hating it. There’s so many ‘what ifs?’ that it’s strange to think about. I’m so grateful for everything and I’m grateful for the experiences that I had. It’s just so crazy to think about. For us, it’s so natural and it just feels like the next way you meet people. You meet people through school and you meet people through college and you meet people through work and then it’s, ‘Oh yeah, I met people through my hobby; I met people through podcasting.’ It was just another outlet, another way to meet people and that felt as right as, ‘Oh yeah, these are my work friends, these are my podcast friends.'”
I am going to move forward with an idea I came up with it while I was doing all those “Jay & Colleen Origin Story” posts last year. I want to put together a book that compiles stories like Jay & mine’s or like the MJ boys. Stories that will have the same feel-good-ness as the Chicken Soup for the Soul books had, only painting a picture of the positive side of new media & the Internet. Ideally, I would love to get testimonies from any of you out there and supplement them with news stories, such as people using Twitter to help a child get an organ transplant (I believe Alirio told about this happening close to home, though I could be mistaken). Social media and the Internet have been around long enough now that I think that enough time has gone by to have a success story or two about how someone’s life was changed in ways that it never could have without it.
Just look at me. I now live in Raleigh, North Carolina and I am married to a man that I met through podcasting, a man that I would have had no other possible way of knowing if not for new media. Half of the friends that Jay & I invited to our wedding were people that we had me through podcasting.
I’m not the only person to have had their life changed so drastically in a way that wouldn’t have been possible 15 years ago. I want to make those who go, ‘Oh. The Internet…’ understand that the world may be smaller nowadays, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For every bad story, there is an amazing story.
I’m going to need help. I need help spreading the word and getting people to contribute. Everyone has a story and I would love to hear it and if you’ll let me, share it. Is this idea worth moving forward with? It’s only in the early stages still. Will you help me?
I am going to use the email address JayandColleen@gmail.com or you can let me know what you think in the comments section.
Thank you. If you think this is a stupid idea, please be nice to me, haha.
