Let's start the story with a story: When I was fifteen years old, I had an NDE (near-death experience) on the operating table that changed the course of my life forever. I was fully aware of my situation. I had a personal choice to either die or fight to live. I remember thinking to myself that I had an entire life to live, and it wasn't meant to be to leave my body no not yet. I could see my energy, my personality, my essence, or my 'spark' was separate from my body, which was just a tool. And I understood that what I was experiencing was a lesson and a test, but for what? The answer was clear. I was supposed to do something and fulfill my mission of why I was born. But this NDE wasn't exactly giving me a whole lot of answers to what it was I was supposed to do next! But there was a clear directive or mission (which is still something I'm struggling to understand), and that was to "serve" and help others.
After that experience, which I've tried to bury or repress all my life, I went on to figure out how to become someone. I had always wanted to be a musician and naturally excelled in music. After graduating from high school, I moved on to college as a music major. I even had a brief stint serving in the Texas reserves as a Military Police. But my real goal was to tour the country as a professional musician, which I did. I lived the dream of being a rock musician and playing on stages and having fans and having a blast doing it. I call those years 'my retirement years.' I was enjoying life without a care or any adult responsibilities.
While on the road, I met my future to be wife, dropped anchor in Washington, DC, and said goodbye to the rock star lifestyle. I was going to raise a family that I did: two boys, two cats, a dog, a house the whole thing. I had to reinvent myself. I got a job with a real estate law firm and then moved into mortgage banking. And I had my next career helping people with home-ownership fulfill their dreams. But I was restless and wanted music to be back in my life again. So I reinvented myself again, and became a business owner of Potomac Talent in 1997, (which Inrememeber is a part). The agency was my tool to help people celebrate all sorts of special events, from weddings and birthdays to corporate events, balls, fundraisers, and galas. We were already experts in music. Now we were becoming experts in video, event production, event technology, logistics, and coordination. But something was missing. I had already led an exciting life, but a life that didn't seem to have a compass. I didn't have a plan like most of my professional friends had. My life seemed to me to be like a boat blown by the wind, which had a better idea of where I was going than I did.
In the spring of 2018, something quite remarkable and unexpected happened. A former client and friend recommended a family she was friends of also, to hire me to help them produce a tribute celebration of life memorial for their grandfather. It was the most emotionally satisfying special event I ever did. It was a light bulb moment as I discovered what I was supposed to do the lesson from my teens now made sense. Everything I had done in my life was leading up to helping people and families create the final Special Event. The last party told with immersive event technology and years of experience in producing seamless and engaging events.
Every single celebration we've done over the past year and a half has been the most satisfying thing I've ever done. We are helping people tell remarkable stories and share their journeys of discovery, failure, lessons learned, love, laughter, tears, and sacrifice. No two stories are the same. And after I've had the privilege to work with a family, to learn their story, and help them share the stories of the person they've lost, I'm one step closer to understanding how my story might finish. I think life is all a lesson if we pay attention. And it's an adventure and story worth telling so others may learn. Inremember was born out of the need to serve others.
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