Ooh man. START Conference officially wrapped up four nights ago and I’m still recovering! Let’s just say that 5 Club this week has not been pretty… :)
These are only 1% the memories made with Start Experiment friends…
- Not hearing my alarm and waking up 2 hours late
- Reading an “I’m at the airport!” text from Malori as I woke up
- Casey stalling our flight because he’s awesome
- Malori waiting for me so we could run to the gate together <3
- Arriving at the gate 1 minute passed “last call”
- Looking back to see a man walking into the plane behind me (YES! Totes his fault, right?)
- Casey wearing headphones on the flights as if Malori and I were his daughters. We swiftly remedied that.
- Meeting fellow Generosity Project Scholarship winners!!
- Tennessee’s beautiful weather
- Writing our fears on a punching bag then PUNCHING & KICKING them outta here!
- Breaking the typewriter…….
- Riding in the rental car with all the windows down
- Rob filming an epic intro video in our rental car only to realize his phone was backwards
- Taco Bell at 12:00am
- Driving by Financial Peace Plaza after Taco Bell (squeeee!)
- A pint of ice cream at 1:00am (not mine, I swears it!)
- Casey punching his fear of rotating hotel doors
- The Shane Face
- Running up to David Dollar to say hi then realizing it wasn’t him…
- Finding and hugging David Dollar so well that my glasses almost break (go team #STARTelves!).
- Tennessee’s beautiful weather
- Jon Acuff recognizing me (win!)
- Hugging Libby Norcross
- Karen’s cookies for everyone in the #StartExp Lab
- Walking off with several of those cookies, awkwardly running into Karen and thanking her for “my bag”
- Doing a video interview with the Senior Video Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show and talking about all things START
- Tearing up during that interview
- Hot Pockets with Shane and Ryan ;)
- Missing Emily Carlton and Ronne Rock and #alltheSTARTers who would not be there
- Representin’ #G39! (fo life)
- Meeting Jenny Acuff and discovering she’s the reason for Jon Acuff’s success (Proverbs 31)
- Malori being an awesome iPhone photographer and videographer
- The peaceful presence of Tammy Helfrich
- The Acuff girls making and selling awesome START swag!
- Rocking my L.E. Band
- Amy Campbell screaming my name and yelling to friends a few feet away, “THIS is May BOHOOOONNNNN!!!!”
- Playing staircase in front of the Dave Ramsey LIVE team’s wall setup
- My heart almost exploding each time I met a START Experiment member in person
- Not being able to stay in one spot because of all the START squirrels!
- Making smiley faces with ketchup on Chick-fil-A tater tots (#ofcourse)
- The awesome DJ
- Meeting awesome Lampo Group team members
- Casey and Malori being awesome travel buddies, especially when my “only child” was showing…
- Tennessee’s beautiful weather
- The Courtyard Crew
- Raising hands about the voices we fear
- Melissa Hawks beginning the healing process of an emotional wound only she knows I have
- Auto-correct changing my text from “totally” to “orally”
- All the right business cards :)
- Crying while wathcing Jeremy Cowart‘s powerful photos of forgiveness
- START hangover from #allthetalks, #allthetears, #allthehugs, #allthelove
- Jerod lovingly listening to my never-ending recap :)
Truth be told, I miss my Start Experiment friends dearly. I equate the emotions I felt after the conference to the ones I felt after my wedding reception (happy 4 months today, sweety!). I miss everyone I met and am sad that I didn’t get to meet more. The “reentry” back into life on Monday was a tough one. I feel like I met 150 of my best friends and now we’re apart (total attendance was actually 600!).
But really, it wasn’t a conference. It was a reunion with people I feel like I’ve known for years. <3
However, if I’m going to make it to StartConf 2014, I have to turn this sadness into gladness and use it as momentum for the next 56 weeks. I love and miss everyone, but know I’ll see you again soon!
START Conference attendees, what would you add to this list? :)
*Confession: I’ve added to this list at least 5 times since I first clicked “Schedule.”
shades of may 