Watching the powerful Steve Jobs commencement speech  again, has opened my eyes and heart to dot connecting.

As I look back on this week, the dot connecting is clear and ubiquitous.

Starting with Monday. I met with a new friend, a prolific writer, who just moved from New York. We spent the afternoon in a cafe brainstorming. This became one of the best few hours I’ve spent in a year. It was magic. Exhilarating. We just kept building on the story and the characters. As each idea grew, I felt lighter and lighter. More hopeful. It’s been an extremely difficult year, losing my brother (one of my best friends) suddenly. The dark days have been dark. But this one afternoon changed all that. It’s as if I’ve opened up a new chapter in my life.

And because of that, the entire week was light. The heaviness, the sadness gone.

In retrospect, I almost rescheduled. But something told me to seize the moment. And I did. And this moment turned into a life changer.

Then, Wednesday I went to Mirabelle restaurant. Met an amazing person who happened to be sitting at the bar next to me. He was exactly what I needed for my research on The Sunset Strip, regaling me with stories of the fascinating rock n roll era on this 1.7 mile stretch of road.

Last night, I went to a book signing at the historic and wonderful, Book Soup to shoot a piece for The West Hollywood Patch. It ended up being much more than a book signing. It was a series of performances from the book. Once again, I met fascinating people who shared their Sunset Strip stories from decades ago.

This has been a great week of dot connecting!

Adventure Tip: When you’re invited to an event, or even a coffee with someone, go if it feels even a little bit right. It could be a life changing adventure. (but remember, go WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS).

-Tracy Pattin

Tags: adventure, dot connecting, Stanford University, Steve Jobs