It is Wednesday morning. I have nothing to do. I don’t want to be bored at home. These were the simple thoughts that inspired me to drive to my first Meetup. I had previously browsed the site during my activities search and found some interesting looking groups, but none of those that matched my interests were holding meet ups within the near future. However, desperate boredom and a bit of stress about the upcoming weeks led me to San Jose for a collage making meet up. Everyone who knows me is also aware that I am a terrible artist. Very rarely do I find a skill that I am just hopelessly bad at. But, art easily fits this bill as I am as likely to create a masterpiece painting as free climb the empire state building. But, collaging is usually a fun activity, and so, hesitantly, a mere two hours before the meet up began, I messaged the group founder about attending. Fortunately, she was more than happy to oblige. I arrived at the studio and met the very nice owner who truly made me feel comfortable as she chatted about herself and the studio. We waited as a couple more people were supposed to arrive. I explained to her about how I ended up there on a Wednesday morning in August, and she was very interested to hear about my brief school hiatus.

But, promptly at ten AM it was time to get down to business. As she was describing all the materials, I noticed a very interesting design on the wall. I interrupted the materials tour asking how she made it. I was very happy and doubtful when she said I could craft something similar. The masterpiece I was trying to live up to was a foam board wall hanging filled with various decorated cardboard squares and designs. There is always that feeling of hopelessness when I see something beautiful an artist has made and believe beforehand that my masterpiece will be a sad second to the original. But, I saw all her materials and figured I might as well utilize her instruction to try my best. Shockingly, I ended up crafting for close to three hours. I completed not only, one foam block, but two complementary ones. While they were not exactly the same as the originals, I was actually satisfied with my creations—so satisfied that I will be hanging them on my wall! All in all, my first experience with Meetup was a complete success, and I am so happy that I took the risk to try something I am not completely comfortable with. I will definitely be attending more of these crafting sessions in the future.