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The title says it all. I wasn’t able to party much at SXSWi (too much standing the night before = little ability to walk the next day), but this is one night I’ll always remember. Events unfolded thusly:
- Jeremy (the person to the right of me) mentioned to someone that he was Canadian.
- George said “There’s a Canadian over here!” (meaning yours truly)
- George started singing “O Canada”. Everyone else joined in.
Jeremy came up to me later, and the warm emotion he was feeling was clearly reflected in his face. “I feel it right here,” he said, touching two fingers just over his heart. “It just gets to me.”
It touched me too, but for a different reason.
Later that week, George spoke at 20×2 and said his friends made the difference in his life. When I think back about this night, I know exactly what he meant. This is why I go to SXSW. Sure, the panels are (mostly) useful, and I usually do come away knowing something about interactive technology and its applications than I did going into it. But the reason, no, the reasons I returned this year after a three-year absence are standing all around me.
I love you guys. I’m honored that you’re my friends. Thank you for being guiding forces, for stabilizing me, and for providing the much-needed reality checks that I sometimes miss out on being all the way up here in the Great White North.
