UXDI-7 Orientation

Lucky UX

They told us to write down our experience. Chew on the daily experience then spit it on out a blog, a personal journal or a daily drawing on a cocktail napkin. “Show your work” said my math teacher. Seems the words still hold true.

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Woke up early. Big changes today. Need to get ready. A much needed haircut, making sure my socks match and having enough but not too much coffee. The critical stuff. Nerves and excitement as the morning turned into the afternoon on my final day of unemployed wandering around DC. Reading in a coffee shop surrounded by other people blissfully idling, lunch with a friend in DuPont then hitting the Phillips. It felt like unemployment and I were breaking up. We both knew. But we figured we could do all of our favorite things together just one more time.

I got to the 1776 building a bit early, so I found myself a couch tucked a few doors from our meeting room and treated myself to an afternoon nap. I will miss these. God bless the midday nap. I woke up to the sounds of laughter coming from our meeting room. Wow. The energy was already so high, as if each other already. Impressed and surprised, I headed into the room of 23 fellow students. I dig it.

Much like the first day of summer camp, we had to get to know each other. But unlike the first day of summer camp, there was beer. A quick round of an introductory name game shows me that I’m surrounded by my people. Driven, geeky, cool, music obsessed, book obsessed, culture obsessed, salt of awkward, pepper of over-the-top… but just damn fun. Hearing a little about each person showed that our past lives represented just about every job in DC. Journalists, Interior Designers, policy, sales, tech, freelance and travel junkies. Everyone had one thing in common. UX was it. This was the next step. For some it had to be to satisfy some feeling. For some it seemed destined to be to make the change in the world. For some it was mandatory to stay afloat financially. But it all made sense.

Big shout out to Mina for leading the charge towards happy hour for the group. The orientation was fun and easy, so there was no need to unwind. This was more of a chance to keep the conversation going with the new cohort. As all good happy hours go, it feels like we talked through everything and nothing. Dirty Detroit Techno and Universal Basic Income with Raamish, How our new app will make us mill — no no — billionaires by next week with Samantha, the ins and outs of proper wall decorating for adults with Ben and Owen, thanking Vianka for the kickin’ rad cupcakes on her own birthday. The list goes on. As I’m sure it will for the next ten weeks.

I’ve got a mighty good feeling about this UXDI-7.