Last night I escaped to the pool of the apartment complex I’m staying in. I’m tending to this nasty sunburn that I received down here on the first couple days when I fell asleep on the beach. It is not pretty and I am about to get on a train for twenty-seven hours. I laugh at it because it is all a part of this journey that I am so fulfilled to be on.
While I was down by the pool, I met this woman who had just recently moved with her husband from Michigan. She was also escaping for a moment. Her husband was taking care of their one year old while she enjoyed the hot tub. They moved to Tampa because her husband is in the Air Force and he was placed in Tampa.
After she told me the basics: How they met? Where they got married? Why they came to Tampa? She told me her passion for art and music from video games that get mixed into different music genres. Then, we got on the topic of fan fiction. Remember Claire at the Starbucks in Austin? She was a fan fiction author.
When I met Claire and her fans, I had no clue what fan fiction really was, but I faked it well. Last night in the pool, I was educated. The abridged version is fiction written in order to combine two or more characters from different story or plot lines. A good example would be if I wrote about Harry Potter in a samurai story with Edward from Twilight. There are no boundaries to what the story can do so it really unleashes the imagination into limitless scenarios. Even though it doesn’t have boundaries, it does have very philosophical rules. I’m not educated enough to really go into them, but can say some thought really did go into the creation of fan fiction.
This conversation at the pool last night though really got me thinking about my journey in just a month. Tomorrow I go to New York to stay put because I am quickly running out of funds. In New York I can stay with loved ones who are family and being in New York, I will have plenty of content as well as resources.
My intentions of completing this full year are big and bold. As I look over this first month, I am overwhelmed by the greatness I have come across. Las Vegas opened my eyes to things that we have overlooked in our country like social responsibility from private entities in our communities, the fact that refugees are still coming to our country in hope of a better life, and what a community looks like when it’s second strongest source of revenue stops.
In Austin, I met Claire the fan fiction writer, Teresa who is working on a project to really show talented dancers in our country, the entire group from the APASO conference and hundreds of more. Their stories are all individual and have a right to be shared.
This progression of eye opening moments and great lifelong stories have been constant since Austin into San Antonio, Beaumont, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, Panama City, Saint Petersburg and now into Tampa. Rhonda sharing with us in Beaumont to my Cab driver in New Orleans talking about the progression of New Orleans over the last fifty years all has relevance in our lives. All of it as a whole makes us a community and that continues to be an underlying theme in Project Kinect.
I’m not sure yet of the outcome of this year will be and I probably won’t until much later in the year. I am sure though that there is a benefit to what I am doing even if only for entertainment. We need to know each other better without judgment and without prejudice. We will never get further as a society if we don’t take the time and find the common ground with one another.
As I take the next twenty seven hours off line, on a train, heading toward New York City, please take a moment to think about what Project Kinect can mean in your life. If it does nothing, then that is that. For majority of us though, we really need that human connection on some level so Project Kinect should really hit close to home. In order for me to continue with this and see really where this movement can go, I need all the help I can get. I ask that you please share this, donate, email me, or any other assistance you can think of. Once I have the resources I need to reach out to as many people as possible then and only then can we see the capacity of Project Kinect.
Thank you all for your support so far and see you in New York City.
Tons of love,
Gregg
