As I stood in my kitchen, I honestly wondered whether or not anyone would show up. I would eye my phone every couple of minutes, yet it remained silent. No texts, no messages. I couldn’t help it. The thoughts snuck up on me and inhabited my brain before I could refuse them entry. “What if no one shows up? What if I did all of this for nothing?” This is what failure feels like.
I sighed when an hour later, my phone had still not uttered a sound. Perhaps this was just it, it wasn’t mean to be. I would accept this as a failure and try to work harder to make the next event a success. Or at least, a little more successful than having only your boyfriend’s best friend sitting in the living room watching videos on youtube.
This is a failure, I thought to myself.
I was just about to start putting things away when I heard a ding. Oh. Well, I suppose I should go take a look at that.
It was a message from a friend I hadn’t seen in a really long time.
“I’m here, I think!”
And in an instant, everything changed.
But how? Why did I suddenly feel differently? Why did it suddenly feel like this was not a failure, but in fact, a success? One word: company.
As soon as this friend walked into the house, my heart began to smile. I wasn’t even super close with this person, and yet, what an impact he made just by showing up, being there, celebrating something that was important to me. Wow.
A few minutes later, more friends showed up, two of whom I was so happy to see given their interest in the project. And then more people came, and more still, until finally, the living room was filled with all these wonderful, caring people. In that moment, I knew that this was what success felt like.
Some people probably looked at my invitation or saw my event on Facebook and thought nothing of it, but all these people did not. And what an incredible feeling it is to have this kind of support, especially when it is in regards to something you hold dear.
Last night, we invited people to come over to our house to celebrate the launch of our Facebook page, which will be used to share information, experiences, photos and videos, all about our journey as we build our very own Tiny House.
I wanted to celebrate this moment because I wanted to mark the beginning somehow. I wanted to start actively working and sharing our work. And there’s no better time than now.
We welcomed 10-12 people throughout the night and I – very excitedly – showed them what we had to offer. I decorated the house a little bit and prepared a few things, because it wouldn’t be a launch party without having a theme! And so I present to you:
A Tiny Party!
People were encouraged to play some Tiny Games – Word Search and Pin The Door on the Tiny House! We also had lots of food and refreshments, notably some Tiny Cupcakes, and some Tiny Cups (for regular sized drinks).
My favourite part, by far, was the Tiny Photo booth. I set up my new Instax polaroid camera next to our Tiny Adventures banner where you could take a photo and pin it up. We got so busy we didn’t take many pictures, but Max got a great one of the gang sitting around the table together, laughing.
All in all, it was indeed a huge success. And the one thing that made a difference was having such amazing company.
Side note, if you’ve never watch the Youtube video entitled “COMPANY IS COMING!” – or even if you have – you need to click on the link and watch it. Because that was completely me the morning of the event.
