When you think about spending your time intentionally, who are the people you spend it with?
Your family? Partner? Best friends? Pets? College roommates? Neighbors? Loved ones? Strangers?
Wait a minute. Strangers?!
I rarely (if ever) see people talking about spending time intentionally with people they don’t already know. Talking to strangers feels like a dying art.
I attended Carly Valancy and Franz Gerhardter’s Anti-Networking Event in Denver. The event is based on the premise that life is all about who you know. Partly stemming from Carly’s gift for designing meaningful experiences rooted in curiosity and hands-on activities, and partly from the luck of who attended, this was the most deliberate, uniquely wonderful event I’ve ever been to.
Much like showing up as your whole, unfiltered self around those closest to you, I’ve never felt more like myself in a room full of 150+ strangers. I laughed (hard) with people I don’t know. We discussed deep topics, like what’s alive for us right now. I marched right up to event co-host, Franz, and told him how much I appreciate what he’s doing through his card company, ArdorU, because a handwritten card from my grandmother, Janet, is one of the last things I have left of her.
I left reminded that maybe intentional time isn't just for the people who already know you — maybe it's also for the strangers you haven’t met yet. In the wise words of Carly, “Life really is all about who you know” (and you never know who you haven’t met yet that will change your life).
Who might you meet this week?
The Life-Changing Art of Talking to Strangers (Psychology Today)
30 minutes with a stranger by Alvin Chang
I reached out to one person every day for 100 days. I am a different person. on a good omen by Carly Valancy — LMK if you want a free one-month subscription to Carly’s Substack!
Connection Jet Pack (paid digital download) from Kat Vellos
People we thought would be with us forever aren’t and people we didn’t know would come into our lives do. Our work here is to keep faith with that, to put it in a box and wait.
I’m Alyssa Towns, and this is TIME INTENTIONAL, a newsletter exploring what it means to spend our limited (and precious) time intentionally in honor of Janet, Dale, and John.
Read more about the meaning and memories behind each section of the newsletter!
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