I’ll start this post by saying that I know it’s taken me a long while to write this, but better late than never right? The truth is, I just didn’t know how to put my whole experience into words that could be strung together and make sense to attendees, and non-attendees, and I just got caught up in the aftermath and now it’s December 5th…
So let’s just start at the beginning:
I review places/things/food for fun, and I never thought something would come of it until I applied to Connect Live and got accepted to attend this year’s event. I was ecstatic, excited and getting nervous as the days and months went by and the CL2019 date came closer. Then the unthinkable happened: 1 month before the event, I fell off a bike and sprained my ankle almost to a fracture. I started crying when the doctor told me it would be at least 4 weeks of rest and rehab to get back to “normal” and the first thing I asked is if I could travel anyway (with crutches, an almost broken foot and all) I was NOT missing this event for anything. And so after the hospital, I handed in my 3-week sick leave at work and told them I’d be back mid November after my week vacation to Connect Live.
I have a flair for the dramatic, but I’m telling you, everyone thought I was insane for still wanting to go despite barely being able to walk because it hurt and after my sick leave, but alas I’m stubborn as a bull and decided to go anyway, I was determined.
On the flight over to San Francisco, I kept thinking to myself: this is awesome, but I don’t know absolutely anybody what was I thinking coming here ?
The thought presided on that first event at the welcoming cocktail, I kept seeing everyone hug each other and it seemed to me like they were all friends from years before or something, and I kept having the urge to leave (I’m veeeeery social, mind you, but there’s something about a room full of people that seem to know each other that’s just somehow intimidating). I started talking to some people, and then I just decided to get out of my head and let go of all expectations and just be open to meeting everyone who crossed my path, and started making some friends.
It’s funny to what extent you can connect with so many people that are so different but yet so likeminded in a way; I don’t think I’ve ever felt so understood, at least not in the longest time. I was meeting people that, like me, had two or more nationalities, people that spoke more than 3 languages too, or were currently living in a country that wasn’t one of their nationalities; people who were passionate about travelling not for the sake of it, but to truly experience different cultures, people hungry not just for food but for deep knowledge about our cultures or likes or even just us as people. Meeting the googlers was no different, every single one of them was utterly motivated, happy, and excited about what they were working on, I don’t think I’ve ever met more passionate people!
Google really had us spoiled for the course of 3 days: we had almost every minute of the day planned with exciting activities to help and learn about google products and novelty, to interact with googlers, time to explore the Google Campus (and obviously take amazing pictures for the Gram), amazing catered food (they did not let us starve for even a min, and to my surprise there were even amazing vegan options!), a Lounge were we could hang out with our Connect Live friends and feel like kids again playing with legos or arcade games amongst other things, parties every night with activities food drinks and photo booths too, different tours to explore the city of San Jose (of course I signed up for the Japantown food tour), and lastly the best End Party and End Brunch ever.
I have to admit that before attending, I saw the posts previous attendees wrote, and couldn’t understand how in 3 days people can say they made friends for life, and then I came and everything changed…
I really made new friends for life, I know I can hit up 200 people and whenever I’m in their city, they’ll take the time to at least grab some coffee or give me the best recommendations of where to go and hopefully will get to see some or most of them soon!
Shoutout to my local girl gang, to our selfie king, to our road traveller, to our sweet as a teddy bear, to our vlogger and videographer, to our disability troop, to my millenial buddies, to my latinos, my eastern europeans, my germans, to the expert organizer, and to everyone I got to meet (and didn’t) at CL2019 too, thanks for making this one of the best experiences of my entire life!!!
And most importantly, thanks @TraciC @brittym @mchomsky and the entire google team behind this for this entire event, the organization, your presence, attention (and obviously the Pixels), you rock guyss 
