Pink Pangea Writing Workshop

At the risk of sounding cliché, I’ll come right out and re-quote the phrase we’ve all heard: “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Those that know me know that I often live this way, whether I like it or not – it just seems to be in my nature. Whether that means moving straight across the country to go to college, kayaking through the Alaskan wilderness or signing up to raise $2,500 in order to run a half-marathon in three months when I have no experience running OR fundraising, I am continuously pushing myself to do new, different and challenging things in order to grow as a person. 

In this case, the initial challenge was leaving behind everything I knew to move to Tel Aviv, Israel for five months. However, moving and traveling are old news to me, and while still incredibly challenging (for anyone), the act in itself of relocating to Israel does not count as “pushing” myself. That is why, since I’ve been here, I have tried to emulate that terrible movie “Yes Man” which I only watched half of before I got bored so I actually have no idea how it turns out, but that is to say I have been trying to say “yes” to everything I feasibly can, even if it seems hard or boring or I’m tired or any other number of emotions that can masquerade as reasons to turn something down.

So far, this has done me well: I have gone out even when I was tired and had an amazing time, I have met friends of friends and gone on adventures with them, I have played an international volleyball game with people from all over the world even when I felt like a whale on the beach and I have spent time with and become friends with people who at one point I would have been intimidated by.

The first real challenge, however, came tonight. I am part of a facebook group called “Secret Tel Aviv” which is basically a forum for Americans living in Tel Aviv to communicate with each other about any and everything. There are over 20,000 people in the group and people post about events, apartment listings, classes, questions about medical care or even just for suggestions on where to eat dinner.

A few days ago there was a post advertising a Writing Workshop for female travelers by Rachel Sales, the founder of Pink Pangea, an online community and blog for female travelers.  Registration was 40 shekels and it took place just two days later at a coffee shop/bar/book store called the Little Prince Café.  I was apprehensive about going for a few reasons: 1. It was my first week in Tel Aviv and I barely new my way around my street let alone the entire city, 2. I have never been to a writing workshop and I did not know what it would entail or what I would have to do, 3. I would have to venture there and back alone, 4. I would miss out on what everyone else was doing while I attended and 5. Writing is scary and sharing your writing is scary and also it’s work and drinking and talking and watching Netflix is easier. In the end, it was a no-brainer: I had to go. I reached out to Rachel to confirm the workshop was in English and signed up on the spot.

The meeting took place tonight and it was led by Rachel herself. It sold out with 15 attendees and the age rage was probably from 20 to 50 if I had to take my best guess. I had made it to the workshop and that was a challenge enough so I told myself that I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to. I didn’t have to make any comments, I didn’t have to read anything I wrote, I was just there to listen and gain from it what I could.

First we all went in a circle and talked about where we were from and our most significant travel experience. The thing that stuck out to me immediately was how inexperienced I felt compared to everyone else. I’m used to being one of the most well-traveled people in any group, so to be the least-traveled who had not yet spent significant time in any other country made me feel insecure. Still, I reminded myself that I was only 23 and I had just arrived in Israel and I had plenty of time to travel in the coming years, and these were all people like me who I could learn from. 

After talking a bit we read two essays, one from Vanity Fair and one from the Pink Pangea website and critiqued them: what worked, what didn’t, what we liked and how it was effective travel writing. I didn’t plan on speaking but ended up making one comment on the second essay and I felt good that I had contributed.

The highlight of the workshop, however, was the final activity, the actual writing. Our prompt was simply to write about a travel experience we had had while thinking about everything we had just discussed in terms of what worked/didn’t work.  All of a sudden, it was like an essay that had been waiting to get out of me for years was at my fingertips, one about my Ghanaian trip on Semester at Sea.  Of all the things I talk about when it comes to Semester at Sea I probably have talked about Ghana the least; it’s something I have kept for myself. Evidence of this is the fact that I said something about it to my mom a month ago and she was shocked that in the previous two years I had never mentioned it. However, as I began to write this essay, I realized I was finally ready to share with the world what I experienced there.

Without getting into too much detail, the introductory pages that I completed today were self-deprecating, introspective, ironic and funny.  And the best part… those aren’t my words. They are the feedback I received from everyone else. With only 25 minutes to write, most people did not want to share what they had written, and after two people had shared the circle was silent. I wasn’t planning on sharing but took this as my queue; my opportunity to accept a challenge and say “yes.” I was so nervous when I started reading, I rarely share something of that nature that has not been edited several times over, but as soon as I got to the first punch-line and everyone laughed at my joke I felt better.  When I finished reading, everyone was on the edge of their seats and two girls excitedly exclaimed that they wished I had written more so they could hear the rest, followed by asking Rachel if she would forward the final essays to everyone. I got great and thorough feedback and this made me feel awesome.  Additionally, instead of just Rachel offering a few words, several people told me things they liked, thought worked, thought were cool, thought were funny etc and also said that they respected the subject matter and my honest portrayal of the experience, even though it did not paint me in a positive light. They said it was  very relatable which is my ultimate goal as a writer; to write something that other people can connect with and relate to.

So, I’m a little bit on top of the world right now. Going into the workshop I thought there was no way I would share anything, and to not only write something I like and am excited to finish AND get good feedback on it I am just really thrilled. I have been wanting to start writing non-fiction essays on my travel experiences and I haven’t known how to do it and I feel like in this workshop I received the tools I needed to get started. I also now am connected to 14 other female writers living in Tel Aviv and those are 14 more people I can add to the community I am trying to build for myself here.

It was a great first week and things are only getting better.