The Nights You Show Up Anyway
It was 7:30 p.m., and I was debating whether to keep waiting around or head out. The Meeting of Minds turnout had been all over the map in the couple of months since I’d launched the series. Some nights a handful of folks, some nights a hundred, and sometimes… no one.
Just as I had decided to start getting ready to pack it in, Renda Writer, artist, long-time friend waltzed through the door. He’d just gotten back to town after a long stint in New York. I welcomed him warmly, happy to see a familiar face, and we sat down catching up before he got a call from someone outside. He had invited a friend, Johnny Meant, whose name I’d known for years from instagram, though we’d never met in person. Suddenly the night shifted.
We caught up, traded stories of travel and the local graffiti scene, and the empty chairs I’d been bracing for didn’t matter anymore. It wasn’t about numbers; it was about moments like this: unplanned, real, rooted in shared history and creative energy.
Some nights you show up for the crowd. Some nights you show up for the one unexpected connection that reminds you why you’re here in the first place.
Keep showing up. You never know who’s about to walk through the door.