Breaking out of the D-OC Bubble . . .

I love the D-OC Bubble.  I love our happy place where I can say “I’m so high” and nobody thinks I'm a stoner.  I love using short-hand d-lingo like CGM and SWAG and knowing I don’t need to explain what the heck I’m talking about.

But it is also great to break out of the D-OC Bubble and meet health activists who are advocating for other conditions.  So I was very excited to make my way back up to Boston last week for the second WEGO Health Activist Meet-up.



I blogged about the first one back in April, and the format of last week’s meet-up was the same.  We introduced ourselves with three Twitter #hashtags.  This time mine were #owneroftheworldscutestcat #totallyobsesssedwithknittingandyarn and #OMGthatgirlisSOlongwinded.  (But yes, I dropped the #shy #hashtag!)  We had time to mingle and I got to chat with some of the people I met in April and meet some new activists who attended.  I met activists for allergies, cancer, addiction recovery, stress resources and more.  But I wasn’t completely outside of the D-OC Bubble, because Jeff was also in attendance!  It was awesome to finally get to meet him in person - even if he did “scold” me about the racket my meter made during one of the discussions.



Once again, it was difficult to pick a break-out session because all three sounded so valuable.  In the end I chose “Using Multimedia as a Health Activist”, fabulously presented by Carissa.  I came away with some great tips and ideas from Carissa and the other activists who attended the session.  One important tip was to remember to capture photos / videos / audio / etc. to spark and enhance topics you post about.  I put that tip to good use right away as I snapped a (sorry so blurry) picture of Paul and Jeff presenting wrap-ups of two of the sessions.



Apparently the cheese covered flat-bread snacks also inspired me because I snapped a picture of those too.  Yum!



To be honest, I had fought a long string of lows since the night before, followed by a high that left me feeling cruddy upon my arrival in Boston that afternoon.  So I was particularly thrilled to see a 111 on my meter and feel free to indulge in a slice of the flat-bread.

I'm very fortunate to live close enough to Boston to attend these WEGO events.  I learn so much from the people I meet and leave feeling inspired and ready to do more!  The D-OC Bubble is a great place to be.  But don’t forget to interact and share with health activists from other fields as well.  Our conditions may be very different but so many of our concerns, needs and goals are very similar.  I firmly believe we can all learn so much from each other.

** You can read more about the meet-up on the WEGO Health Blog.