Blooming Pride
The other day U and I attended a holiday party organized by a Filipino LGBTQIA+ network in our city. We had fun and met a lot of new people, shared and ate food we missed the most, and chatted the night away till it’s time to go home to feed our dogs.
I’m normally not a fan of networking events, specifically because:
- I’m an introvert. Networking = lots of talking, and my social battery tends to run out fast.
- I’m not a fan of small talk, and networking events are replete with such kinds of surface-level conversations.
- Networking in itself tends to be transactional, which doesn’t really sit well with me. I want to build genuine connections, not just pathways to a job.
I’m pleased to report that our experience with this group had been nothing but positive at the get-go. I went home feeling tired but fulfilled, as if the fraying edges of my being have been invigorated by the connections we made and the promise of new friendships and relationships, professional or otherwise.
It’s nice to know that despite uprooting ourselves from the only place we’ve ever known and transplanted our lives in foreign soil, we can still grow new roots and bloom where we were newly planted. 🌸