Urban Campfire is the brainchild of CRAVE founder Melody Biringer. After a grueling year, and nearly losing her mojo, she decided to organize an event for women to tell stories, get inspired, and make s’mores together. I had the pleasure of attending Urban Campfire this week, and here are a few of my reflections:
It’s okay to fail, and it’s good to talk about it
“If you don’t have a failure, that’s your failure.” – Melody Biringer
At our first breakout session, we gathered in small groups around mini campfires. We had been instructed to come to the event prepared to talk about our biggest failure. It was really special to sit down and share vulnerable stories with women I had just met. My group also took the failures-as-opportunities-for-growth perspective, which deepened the conversation to include what we’ve learned from our mistakes and failures.
The Girl Scouts invented the S’more
In 1927. Check it out.
Friendships are good for our health
Founder of GirlFriendCircles.com and author of Friendships Don’t Just Happen, Shasta Nelson urged us to reach out and ask for companionship when we’re lonely. “Like hunger tells us we need to eat,” she said, “loneliness tells us we need to connect.” She recently wrote on her blog about how the physical effects of loneliness are similar to those of stress.
“Look to your friends to codify your accomplishments”
Moz founder Gillian Muessig talked about her long journey to seeing her strengths and accomplishments the way her friends and colleagues do. She told a story about having a friend review her resume, and the alarming disparity between how she and her friend presented her skills and experiences. She charged us with internalizing the lesson it had taken her so long to accept herself: don’t sell yourself short–not on paper, and especially not to yourself.
Singing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” with 500 other women is really really cool
One of the two keynote speakers was Agapi Stassinopoulos. Her whimsical talk included stories of growing up in Greece with her sister Arianna Huffington, and how she kept her chin up while trying to find the best way to use and share her talents as a performer. She showered us great personal mantras like “the key to success is radical generosity,” “don’t leave this place without opening your heart to a stranger,” and “we’re not supposed to fit in!” At one point in her talk she started singing the famous song from Evita and invited us to join her in the chorus. Even though it’s not an obvious choice for a campfire sing-a-long, the experience was surreal. We were 500 women in an airplane hangar singing the emotionally charged melody after a day of being inspired and vulnerable. It was haunting, thrilling, and one of my favorite moments from the day.
Are you sincerely bummed that you missed out? Melody and the CRAVE folks are cooking up another Urban Campfire event in October. You can check it out here.