I’ve always known that there is a flow to life. Swim with it and you move quickly towards your destination. Swim against and you may get where you think you want to go, but man do you have to work for it. After a year an a half of cruising, I was well positioned to stay in the flow, but it was surprisingly difficult to maintain my conviction in the sleepy months surrounding the holidays. The city was all but dormant, there were no jobs posted, no real professional meetups, and I was starting to think of forcing, and leveraging. In other words, I was getting desperate.

Then over the last two weeks three strangers came out of the woodwork to make introductions, bring me into their communities, and generally make me feel like Brisbane might be the best place on earth to be a young, talented, authentic person.  Within a week I went from cold-emailing people and considering recruiters to having brunch with hotshots (including an eco-documentarian and a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize), and working with a QUT postdoc on a cool social-tech project for collaborative spaces. In the process of all this I fell into a community. Pretty much any time I interact with techies here, we have shared acquaintances, and at the most unexpected times, those people offer unsolicited help in my job hunt. It’s amazing. It’s humbling, and it freakin’ cool.

I’m now feeling pretty much plugged in. I’m meeting new people every day, and I’m sure I haven’t yet scratched the surface. The fact is though that Brisbane is small enough to make a difference in, but big enough to be able to move and express yourself. I’ve seen a lot of cities in a lot of countries, and I’m pleased as punch that we’ve fallen into this one.  If you are one of those amazing people that has helped me feel at home here, thank you!