Building a Network

If I have learned anything from my nearly 2.5 years in college, it's all about making connections. From my first classroom guest speaker to the present, I always make a point to show my interest to those with which I come into contact.

Through simple personal contacts and without formal applications, I have been offered opportunities for grantwriting, blogging, panel moderation, conference speaking, internships, arts magazine writing, gallery curation, concert booking, and much, much more. Truly, the thing I have found most vital is showing people that you care, and can do whatever is thrown at you.

Ever since I first E-mailed the IceHouse to ask about volunteering at the landmark, ever-endangered art space, I have taken the opportunity to introduce myself those whose work I found interesting, or with whom I might have something in common. Serendipity becomes quite easy when you are willing to talk. It seems like every week I am asked by someone new to participate in a new project, or recommend a friend for a new venture. The best part: it isn't about shmoozing.

While most people see this kind of networking as self-aggrandizing, I find my work to be truly invigorating. When you actually care about the causes and work that you are pursuing, people see that passion and look to ignite it into real and substantive action. What begins as a big, menacing city becomes a close circle of people with the same, mutually-beneficial goals at heart. Within my own network, I have found dozens of people eager to build a sustainable, dense, creative community of their own, rather than importing someone else's culture, or worse yet, simply moving away to find a culture that already exists.

I care about the work that I do. Though it is at times exhausting and seemingly endless, there is never a moment when I regret talking to someone new and opening up a new door of opportunity.