Life’s a Beach… the Menices of Venice
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics Covered: Solo Trip, Grounding, Skate Parks, Broken Economy, Dead Tourism, International Tourists, Personal Privacy, Surveillence, Allies, Intuition, Addictions, Self Trust, Patience
Well, yes - from Seattle, plopped onto Venice Beach. I had the weekend available and found a $84 round-trip flight to California a few months back. I was mostly excited to watch skateboarding and roller skating at the skatepark. To soak up sun and explore this neighborly state. Hoping for warmer weather and more sunshine. Sunshine is my new obsession.
Why Attend: Next thing you know, you’re 140 years old and life passed you by before you forgot to soak up the sunshine, you know? When’s the last time you spent a significant amount of time outside in sunshine. Maybe even a handful of days - did you feel surreally incredible after? Me too!! Recently, so I wanted to try and get that again. Instead, well, this trip taught some valuable life lessons and presented some new strange experiences. Strange is a nice word for all of this, you know? Yeah. We are living in very dark times. I am hopeful for the future, but I’m learning too much by keeping my eyes off of the phone lately. YOu know? When you look up and away from your phone, you see what’s happening in teh world. It’s wild. We’ll get into this experience. The trip was completely different than I expected. Not better or worse, just different this time.
Overall Event Ratings: Venue (2.5/5), Food (2/5), Speaker Content (3/5), Networking (3/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)
Photo Collage and Commentary
Notes from the Event!
This trip was over a few nights. I didn’t bring my computer on this trip for a few reasons, but also that means I didn’t write down notes - typed! Just written in my notebook. So, I wrote A LOT - like 100 pages this trip in my notebook. Reflecting, processing. I used this trip to process a lot - and talk with Ai too. So, below will be a lot of my notes I have picked out of my notebook - and I’d also like to share the experience of my entire 3rd day - the best I can. It was a very surreal day, to be honest. It has every emotion. Fear, excitement, paranoia, relief, belonging, disappointment, hope, awe… you know. This trip was very different because I used it to do a lot of reflecting - and trying to lay a lot of the things that have been tough in my life lately, lay them out there - and try to solve each.
For example, bedtimes with my daughter have been so rough.
Also, I’m having a tough time lately setting boundaries on my emotions in relation to others.
A few other things where it’s piling up, up up - so I used this trip to just write, write, write - reflect. Try to see what life wants me to learn.
I wrote A LOT this trip. Lots of notes, lots of reflecting and ideas
I even loved myself too much and made a section n my notebook called “Revelations” 😂. Had a second called “Revelations 2” after Revelations 1 ran out of spaceeeee hahahahhaha. So… yeah! I will take a day or two or three to write all of this down. You know, its a lot and it was a really heavy trip to be honest. But… hey- that’s work.
Plus, I want to get my Ai content out - now that I’m back. It’s such an intimidating/huge priority. SO - this blog comes 2nd/3rd - but its extremely important to me too. This was a wild trip that really was kinda pivotal in my life, if I choose for it to be - you know? I figured out even a new way of thinking/being a bit.
And then I was faced with some very upsetting and weird situations on this trip. I will get into a few and leave a few… idk. I don’t even know how to say it - but some I won’t talk about now. Not cause I don’t want to. I don’t want to, but I don’t know how. And people need to. They are more and more. But not enough.
So, yeah. A lot is heavy. But - I am hopeful for the future. But so sad for today. :( Just I can only imagine what is happening we aren’t told :(.
The world needs help. You know? You don’t. If you do, you do. If you don’t, you really don’t get it and please know that. It does. It completely does - more than you realize. Its so so so so much worse than you realize. The most basic things heartbreaking.
This world desperately needs all of us to stop, look. Learn. Look around. And help. :(. More than you ever would know. I’m sorry to be on this side of it all in a way. It’s like. You can’t unsee this sorrow and the signs. But, here it is and now I must help. It’s just a bit scary, sad, and isolating for now. But I know I’m not alone.
Alright. Enough with the cryptic composure… I wish there was more I could do now, btw - I know I sound like I make no sense at all. But I hope to return to this in a year or so and be able to explain what it’s about - if you don’t know - and we can be relieved. Proud and relieved and moving in a good direction towards a better world. But for now, idk. I will try the best I can.
Let’s move forward. But again, I wish it wasn’t this way with a lot of this sorrow I saw. You know? It is unignorable. And we need to step up.
Oh and btw I wore basically the same shirt/pant combo for like 3 days straight + sleep hahahha. Cause it was freezing and I was too ‘stereotype of california’ hopeful hahahah. That it’d be a warm beach paradise. Dangg.. YOu know.
I even laughed to myself ahead of time, thinking THIS would finally be the trip where I wear everything I pack (cause somehow no matter what I always end up NOT wearing so much of what I pack and IDK how - everty time).
And I said - there is NO WAY will I NOT wear any clothes on this trip I packed. Cause I brought a legit small backpack ONLY for this trip with like hardly anything to wear at all. And yet. Yes. I brought 3 dresses and like… a track suit hahaha - and I didn’t even wear one dress dress + then, only wore the other two dresses I brought (as a cool combo - I should take a pic sometime) ONCE - on my night out - (plus traveling there) - and even then, the night out… was lame. I will tell more. It was cute but lame too. The night. NOT the dress 😁
I have also figured out a number of ways we can save Venice + all of the world. We need to knoxville/barcelona things. I will elaborate sometime. But I think Knoxville and Barcelona have the most incredible reference points we can turn to to build and beautiful into beyondddd!!! :D. From what I”ve seen of this world. And some aspecfts of Shanghai too, of course hahah. Their amazing transit and healthy culture. Everyone walked in AMAZING PARKS nonstop.
But you need amazing parks for that. duh. 🙄. PEOPLE. When can we get started on all of this!!!! :)
OKAY - NOTES TYPED UP -
- For these notes, I just wrote a lot of ideas and then events that happened. Here I’ll talk about EVENTS, under i’ll talk about ideas… cause after you hear of the events, the ideas make more sense :)
… coming soon…
Overall Event Ratings Elaborated:
Venue (2.5/5): The hostel was actually not bad at all, but the city is a bit dirty and rough, feels like a 3rd world country in some places/a lot. But still its great if you can just like do your thing and ignore the riff raff.
Food (2/5): There is such shitty selection of food in this area. I can’t imagine what the locals eat and the diet the kids grow up on. It is not quality - no groceries around, and super super expensive prices. I brought food from home, literally, and ate it all lol.
Speaker Content (2/5): I mean, besides some live music on the street and skateboarding, there is not a lot left to do here. I feel like all of the life of this city is gone. Even so, the skateboarding was so fun to watch and live music was awesome. And on the sunny day, its nice too - but just compared to what I know of this city, the content is dried up and not fueled. Not from waht I can see. It looked abandoned and sad. YOu know? Forgotten and survival mode.
Networking (3/5): I met some very nice people (and weird people, sketchy for sure). But hostels attract open minded people usually, same with unique cities like this. So I met great people and even left with a few new connections, but it was also easy to just be anonymous and enjoy things on your own.
Likeliness to Return (5/5): I love the ‘idea’ of this city so much and I think the best of it, what it can/used to be. I love bohemian vibes, RICH culture. In addition, I think I’m 100% obsessed with watching skateboarding, bmx, roller skating. Etc. I could literally watch it for hours and hours and hours. I knew this about myself but I rarely go seek and watch it. I like how there is a tourism vibe here and you can kinda get away with watching hours and hour and hours of people doing tricks. I wish it was part of life in Seattle too, though I may check it out more after this trip. I love watching it. It’s so peaceful and intense all at once.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
