Random dives into the life of @SocScholarCR: Networking is my super power

But just because it's my super power doesn't mean that it hasn't been cultivated over 15 years through different moments in my life

Between being a part of various Prince Hall Masonic Order Youth groups, Iota Phi Lambda FILs, NAACP Youth Member, Hampton, Zeta, and Urban League, I've been thrown into situations where I've had to work on it

I remember meeting people and writing handwritten letters before emails became more popularized and acceptable for older generations

One of the first @_HamptonU events I attended as a student was a networking one at the HU Museum for the then named HU Honors College. It was to teach us how to network and work our skills. If I dig in my college box, I think I still have the flyer for that.

With Urban League, your #NetworkIsYourNetworth is repeated more than the actual mission of the organization

And through all this, I've learned that if you air on the side of authenticity and not "where can this get me" , your networking will be more successful.

Someone reminded me this week that we randomly hopped into a car together to get some food between conference sessions, exchanged info, and 3 years later, we've helped one another out in a variety of ways

Networking is not the thing for a lot of people, which is fine. For me, I enjoy it and I'm good at it. One of my mentors and another one of my colleague friends always says thats what makes me a naturally good ethnographer: I just like to know things about people

Anyway, there was no real point about this thread, but I had a random memory flash of that HU Networking Event and thought about how that was part of a longer narrative of my life.