Local Envy

Lately, my thoughts have been circling around an idea that I have labeled ‘local envy’. You see, I live in a great city; one that offers a vibrant local community of artists, culinarians, creatives, innovators, entrepreneurs and people who are passionate about everything. My challenge is that because of my day job, I miss opportunities to truly be part of the local community, hence my local envy. It kicked into high gear when I was in town recently and volunteered for the Local Matters open house – a great event at their new location where 200 people came out to show their support for local food and education. There were so many opportunities to engage with people and feed my passion for interacting and building relationships and yet I still feel like I cannot fully engage because I am not consistent. I may go several weeks without traveling but then it will be weeks on the road, where home becomes a place to do laundry and repack my suitcase! And, the longer I live here, the more I crave real connections to people and the community, relationships that are rooted in our common passions but filled with celebrations of our unique perspectives and differences.

As I see the ways in which community is built, informal get-togethers, regular meet-ups and organized events, I am envious of people who get up in the morning and head out the door to their office or business, or even the local coffee shop to start their day. My home office begins to feel like the black hole of connecting – no one to talk to, interact with or share the highs and lows of the work day with. And, while I have no problem grabbing a drink by myself on the road, it seems awfully lonely to grab after-work drinks with myself when I am home. I know, I am starting to wallow in my local envy and it is not pretty. I think it is time for a new perspective.

So, how do I embrace this passion I have for community and localness, when I am not around long enough to build strong roots, heading back out on the road before I can get firmly planted? First, acknowledge that envy can be ugly so I need to channel those emotions in a positive direction. Second, there have to be people and places that I can engage with to start laying roots, or at least planting seeds. Third, in my longing to be a local, I have so many ideas and so many paths that I can pursue but I have to focus – being scattered and all over the place is not the way to start. Similar to how I have started new in so many cities and jobs, I must step back and assess where it is best to focus all this energy and passion.

As I begin the month of May, my personal goal is to create a plan for myself – one that focuses my energy and lays a clear path to changing my envy into action. After an informal research study on Facebook by a friend of mine, we have determined that Virgos tend to spreadsheet everything so I suspect that my plan will make its way into an excel document, with target groups, dates and events all mapped out – hey, I have to channel all this envy somehow, right? In all seriousness, my ‘Year of Molly’ is taking a new twist, one that is destined to be about so much more than me.

One last note to close on: as I continue my quest to get rid of my local envy and find ways to connect, I have to give a shout-out to the Basi Italia team – Johnny, Trish, Ryan, Jen (fondly known as Trixie in my world), Kaitlin (who I continue to call Katie), Johnny the bartender (who we were not sure Johnny the owner would find humor in him being called Johnny Jr.) and all the other great people who work there who make me feel like a local – I just might be putting down my first real roots at the end of our street with great food, great wine and, best of all, a great community of people who love this city as much as I do (and maybe even a little more)!