Before the clock strikes midnight, I just want to say happy ONE YEAR of Mosh Pit Mondays! It sure feels like a fairy tale. I really imagined us celebrating this milestone with champagne and fireworks, but I'm afraid all I can offer to you at the moment are some sleep-deprived sappy feelz.
A T O A S T T O U S
Mosh pits. Mondays. It’s not until you split the phrase that you arrive at a seemingly rare social occurrence juxtaposed with the most regular of weekly phenomenons. Not to mention, these are also two things I had seldom (if at all) given much thought, and yet 365 days later, here I am pondering the explosion of this idea-turned-movement. How did this go from an alliterative aside to an impassioned reality? When did we grow from a “soft” launch advertised only to a handful of homies to a listserv of 250+ moshers? Friendship. My dear friends, let me take a moment to celebrate my most favorite kind of love: friendship. What a powerful and absurd human connection. It goes beyond blood, beyond basic human necessity. We choose our friends; it is an active and freely motivated choice to invest in a stranger who eventually helps themselves to our deepest secrets, passions, insecurities, and dreams. They see how we treat our family members, coworkers, acquaintances, and passersby. They often have gone through school or shared a post-collegiate phase of life with us, side by side, understanding our experience in unspoken ways. We continue to collect them from childhood onwards, journeying with them either in person or through periodic Facetime catch-up sessions. Together, all our friends know different versions of our personal, professional, and spiritual growth, and together, they might even know us better than we know ourselves. And oh to be known in such a raw and real way! Nothing else comes close. Maybe romantic love? But isn’t everyone trying to marry their best friend anyway? And what about familial love? I bet my parents find it more fulfilling that I consider them friends as much as family. Friendship is rewarding because it is not primarily a responsibility, but rather an act of free will. To love not because we have to, but because we choose to. And in return, what a treat to be chosen by another! I would argue it’s one of the greatest compliments we can receive - to be introduced or acknowledged as a friend. Given that friendship is most often situationally cultivated (e.g., college friends), how and where do young professionals, especially those who transplant to a new city, establish new friendships in the absence of their prior network? Although I don’t believe there’s a formula for friendship - sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t - I do believe there are a few factors that may help foster an environment conducive to friend-making: consistency, proximity, and shared values or experiences. I hesitate to present it in such an experimental fashion, but could it be that Mosh Pit Mondays is Boston’s new breeding grounds for friendship? If not that, we sure are breeding something. Cheers to you for not unsubscribing. I can't wait to see where 2020 takes us.
R E C A P
Speaking of, happy new year! Our 1st annual Cinco de New Year brunch proved to be the most unforgettable of fiestas ft. papel picado, sweet potato enchiladas, and essential headwear. We shared our hopes and dreams for 2020 with our fellow moshers and assigned accountability partners to shame us into achieving our goals. Even the troll who hoped and dreamed to start a competing group to Mosh Pit Mondays successfully coordinated a "Fire Pit Friday" bonfire event that same week. I hope the rest of you travel the world, find a hobby, make your bed daily, run marathons, learn pottery, meal prep, and procrastinate less.
U P N E X T
What: Patagonia Cambridge Grand Opening| Party Inside to #getoutside When: Friday, January 31 from 6-9p
Where: Patagonia Cambridge (39 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA) Note: $10 at the door will get you a reusable Patagonia Cambridge pint cup, 2 drink tickets, and access to the mosh pit.