APRIL 2003

Since returning from the Web Awards on March 10th, I have been trying to think of some eloquent way to express everything that happened. I've been trying to find just the right words to say thank-you and the perfect way to say how amazing this community we have really is.

With that kind of pressure, I haven't been able to come up with a thing.

I realised that sometimes, the best way to do something is to keep is simple because any other way can just be overwhelming. If a project seems too big, break it down. If words seem to much, keep them short. If time never seems enough, steal five minutes. Keep things simple.

Trying to make something huge and complicated was working against me because I didn't have anything big and complicated to share. All I wanted to say, really, was Thank you. Thank-you to each and every one of you who visits this site, who participates on the mailing list, who donated to the Austin Fund (we made our goal of $1000!), who voted, who sent in kind words. Thank-you for making this site a winner, even if we didn't take home the Web Award that night. Thank-you to every one who makes their dreams come true or even just thinks about it. Thank you.

Now, Andrea Scher, who also went with me to Austin Texas thanks to the HUGE community support, would like to share her own thank-you note which expresses beautiful how I also felt.

xox
Alex

Thank you for sending us to Austin! It was such an incredible honor to represent the Another Girl site at SXSW.

The night of the awards ceremony was filled with anticipation. We dressed up in our most colorful dresses (and kick ass boots) doused ourselves with glitter and lipstick, and bounded out to (hopefully) collect our prize!

After sipping a couple of cosmopolitans, meeting many fabulous and talented folks, and giving out our cards to anyone who was interested, we finally went into the ballroom for the ceremony.

Flanked by Alex and Evan, we giggled and cheered from our special table "reserved for finalists" in the front of the room. I felt so proud of what I was a part of, so blessed to be associated with such a good, inspiring thing, that the thought of winning any more than we already had, was like eating dessert twice. It just wasn't necessary.

Maybe it's trite to say, "we had already won," like some slogan contrived to make you feel better about losing, but I can honestly say, we had. We, this amazing community of women, with the talent and hard work of Alex, have created an extraordinary thing. When the guy who won for our category (girls allowed) went up to receive the award, he thanked his development team, designers, etc. etc. and our site seemed so grass roots in comparison. It was just Alex and a little bit of hand-coded html. This is something to be proud of. We are pure content baby!

I was overwhelmed, heartened and moved by the generosity of the people who had contributed to our trip. When Alex asked if I could go, my usual fear and scarcity thinking kicked in. "I don't have the money for that! I can't be away from my desk for that long." Blah blah blah. But there was another voice in me that said, "Go for it! The money will come."

And it did, from the most unlikely place - from strangers.

So thank you, Alex, and this tremendous community of women and men that support this web site, for reminding me that the world is a big beautiful generous place and that winning doesn't always mean you come in first place.

xo
andrea

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