Author: Annelise

This morning I stood in front of you all, and as I sputtered out words at random, as I tend to do, failing to make sentences that are comprehensible to anyone except me, and perhaps my little sister, I promised myself that I would write it down instead. Here it goes:

Ten months ago, I knew not one of you. Each of you were across the ocean, living your own lives, rising with – no, probably after – the sun, and doing whatever it is that you all do for your day jobs. The thing about November Project, is that most of us don’t actually get to know each other on that level, that suit and tie part of life, because quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. I don’t know how many hours you spend in front of an Excel spreadsheet, how much money you earn, whether or not you like your neighbors in cubicle land, or even if you are employed. For the majority of you, I don’t know your age or your hometown, or how your life brought you to Amsterdam. But I do know this: read more

Last Wednesday, we had someone new join us. Well, we had a bunch of newbies, but I’m trying to stay focused here. So we had this one person join us last Wednesday. She was new. And she’s relevant to this story. Let’s call her Mariana, because that’s her name. She was new to NP and she’s new to this city, and she’s new to the Masters program we are in together. By the way, that’s what I do here in Amsterdam in my free time, as one of my other unpaid side jobs – I go to school. Moving on. read more

As you all know, our thing, is to #justshowup. Before we #justshowup, we #riseandshine, and after, we #raceeverything, and throughout our time together, we do a lot of hashtag-worthy things like say #fuckyeah and eat #stairsforbreakfast. BUT, the most important thing is that we #justshowup. Yeah, it’s commendable to wake up so early (#riseandshine, if I may), it feels pretty damn good to be the boss of your alarm clock, put two feet on the ground, head out the door in the darkness, and show up to the workout to #raceeverything with 50 friends. But showing up, I mean really showing up is the key to what we do here at November Project. You see, our lives are full of work emails and Whatsapp messages, Snapchats while biking and countless time-checks and scheduling and rushing, and, and, and… For one hour per week, though, we are present. We show up. We put everything else aside to say ‘goedemorgen’ to the humans around us, we tell them we’re glad they came, we give them hips-in hugs, we work our asses off with them, we sweat (a LOT) and when Saskia or I call time, we bring it in and call it a [goede]morgen. For one hour per week, with aching legs and burning lungs, we get to forget about our tick-tock-ing worlds outside of NEMO and we get to truly be present, we get to just show up. read more

A little over two years ago, I just showed up on a Wednesday morning at the Lincoln Memorial. There was this buzz, this positive energy with a badass edge flowing through all these stranger-friends, even in the dark, even in the silent lulls and heavy breathing and unsure footsteps on the small marble stairs. I didn’t know what that feeling I felt that first morning was, but I knew it was good. This morning in Amsterdam, there was that buzz, that energy, that kick-ass feeling flowing through the tribe as we raced bridges and got down with some seriously spicy spice. read more