Seven Days of Awesomeness - Who?

Sleep. Blessed sleep. I am restored, to an extent. Although I seem to have picked up an uncomfortable stomach bug, and spot of seasonal malaise. It's Autumn. A time to drop our leaves and shut down before the approaching Winter beats down our door. And I have had a big week.

As I said yesterday, I'm done. Seven Days of Awesomeness is complete. I hurried off a list yesterday, between meetings at work. And yeah, it's pretty basic, and not all that deep.

I'm pleased I saw it through. I wondered about the wisdom of announcing my plans, rather than just reporting on my activities after the fact. I ran the risk of failing, and looking like a bit of a dick.

It feels good to have stuck to my word, persisting even when I didn't feel like it. Having pre-arranged, ticketed things to do was certainly a help. It's not so easy to duck out of those things, as it's a waste if you do.

There were a few days when I felt uninspired and weary, and not the slightest bit creative.

It felt important to finish what I had started, so I pushed myself to look around, see the world, find the beauty or something of interest to record.

Is that commitment? Because I don't do so well with commitment. If it is, then it's nice to know I can do it. Committing to something that only lasts a week isn't such a huge commitment though. I really should aim for something bigger, or longer, before I can tick that one off.

Sharing my plans before starting encouraged my friends and colleagues to talk about the project, and hopefully they felt like they were part of it. I deliberately did not photograph any of the people I spent time with, well not their faces anyway. If I had, I would have needed to ask people to pose, which would have been too contrived for the project and may have made people feel uncomfortable, or take candid snaps, which again can cause discomfort and feels a little rude. I didn't want to observe or study people, I wanted to spend time with them and enjoy their company.

So even though you won't see many people in my project photos, the people in my life were a huge part of Seven Days. The best part of it actually.

I kept a list of everyone I had meaningful contact with over the week. Many of these people had repeat appearances, and with some of them, especially those far, far away from me, our contact was not in person, but online.

So, here's a list of everyone I would like to thank for being part of the project, being part of my professional life, being part of my personal life, and being part of my family.

In order of appearance during Seven Days of Awesomeness:

Lachie, Darcy, Bronson, Mikaela, Elena, Jane, Alison, Tony, Jason, Sonia, Chris, Dan, Clare, Megan, Juan, Isobel, Jack, Emily, Miss Gidley, the Saturday Avanti class of the Australian Girls Choir, Lindy, Cathy, John, Jacky, Casey, Catherine, Sol, Vince, Vince's Dad, Amanda, Anna, Sam, Tracey, Erin, Minnie, Mandy, Matt, Bec, Paul, Ilaria, Liu, Rana, Ange, Jackie, Rod, Jamey, Anaya, Stuart, Peter, Andrea, Simon, Dan, Wendy, Julian, Sam, Andrew, Brigid, Leon, Richard, Georgie, Kev, hand-slapping go-go partner, James, Susan, Roger, Louise, Michelle, Sarah, Adrian, Jacob, Dave, Katherine, Andrew, Judy, Vanessa, the man I sat next to at the gig, Mike, Enio.