Appreciate the love, guys.
I think I remember wondering aloud in my journal a couple of years ago while watching the Breckenridge stream from 2018, "wouldn't it be great if I could be one of those people, telling their story on stage someday?" It feels pretty good to have finally actually accomplished that.
The basis of it actually came from a journal post I wrote about a year or so ago in March 2019, soon after the Christchurch mosque attacks. The thankyous at the end I picked out from the acknowledgements section of my book project.
There was a lot of practice going into it beforehand. It had mostly been put together a couple of months ago, and then I practiced it several times a day for good 3 months, 2 or 3 times while walking to/from work, and once or twice from my bedroom while looking out the now-famous window with the nice view. Gold Coast last year saw a similar degree of rehearsal beforehand as well. I like to think that it paid off in both instances.
If there's an upside to all the disruption that Denver had to deal with this year, it's that I do feel like I want to return someday, just to personally meet some of those who didn't make it this time around, so I can thank them in person. But if that doesn't happen, then at least there's a chance that they'll hear it through the talk.