Last night was my very last Articles Club while living in North Carolina. A bittersweet ending during my last few weeks here before I begin this new chapter in Washington, D.C. with Andrew! Our monthly club was created in 2015 and has been co-hosted by the fabulous Stephanie Shaul and Emily Thomas. I began attending not so long after I graduated college; I was in a new city with a new job and searching to connect with people with whom I had something in common. I had been following Stephanie on Instagram as a (then) fellow wedding industry professional, but had never met her in person when I saw her blog post about starting an Articles Club.
As Andrew and I finalize packing for our big move in August, I realize I can't pack up the club with me to Washington. BUT I can start a new group once I get there! If you're in the D.C. area and interested in joining, please see the details below and shoot me an email!
Articles Club is very similar to a book club - minus the books. Friends get together to share their thoughts and questions on whatever was selected. Everyone brings a dish and there's typically a bottle (or five) of wine to help get the conversation flowing. We've always hosted within someone's home, but you could easily host it at a favorite restaurant or coffee shop!
Articles (as opposed to books) allow multiple perspectives on a single topic or theme and most importantly, allow others to participate even if they only have a few minutes to dedicate to reading. My favorite part about Articles Club is the mixture of individuals who attend - different backgrounds and viewpoints spark much more lively discussions. In a world where people often struggle to face differing opinions, I cherish that our club created a space where religion, politics, race, and other dividing factors can be discussed openly.
Each month we get together to discuss two or three articles - usually related through a common theme - that were selected by one of our group members. I love that we also usually end up discussing related books, television series, blogs, podcasts, or documentaries related to the topic. I usually leave feeling a little more 'in-the-know' than when I came. I've created a master list of most of the articles we discussed (see below) to give you a feel of the topics or help you out if you're looking to start your own club in your area! I know that getting together with friends during the busy seasons of life can seem difficult, much less sifting through the surface level of 'catching up' to have deep conversations. But from my experience, my friendships that experience these levels of connections are much stronger and fulfilling because of them. Start small, take the plunge! And if you end up being able to rally the troops, make sure you select the next month's meeting date/time/location before you leave the current meeting. It's much easier to schedule when everyone has their calendars in front of them rather than coordinating through text or email!
With that being said, I've come to realize I'd be a little sad without these monthly get-togethers. Plus, what better way to get to know people in a new city than by discussing all the things you're not supposed to discuss? So, if you're in the D.C. area and want to join me on Tuesday, September 17th at 7:30pm, please shoot me an email at mackenziewms@gmail.com so I can add you to our group!
Well, that's all she wrote! Or in this case, read. I absolutely can't wait to connect with those of you who are interested in creating a D.C. Articles Club. If anyone has a great article or theme to add to this ever-growing list, please shoot them my way!
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Articles (grouped by theme, alphabetically):
- Adult Friendships: Friends of a Certain Age; Why It's Smart to Court Your Friends; How Friendships Change in Adulthood Round Two: I Did Speed Dating -- For Friendship; On Making New Friends; The Secret to Staying Friends in Your 30s
- Aging: Why I Hope to Die at 75; How to Become a "Superager"; Before I Go
- Beauty: Are Some Women Just More Beautiful?; Plastic Surgery and Aging; Why Do We Wear Makeup?; Beauty From A Scientific Perspective
- Books/Reading: Can Reading Make You Happier?; How Banning Books Marginalizes Children; Read a Novel: It's Just What the Doctor Ordered
- Enneagram: Enneagram Test; Enneagram Explanation; Inside the Enneagram; The Combination To Your Team's Recurring Problem; Personality Tests Are Popular, But Do They Capture The Real You?
- Family/Motherhood/Children: The Myth of Quality Time; The Family Stories That Bind Us; Motherhood, Screened Off Round Two: How People Decide Whether To Have Children; 10 Amazingly Enjoyable Things About Having Kids; The Child-Free Life: Why So Many American Women Are Deciding Not To Have Kids Round Three: The Codding of the American Mind
- Healthy Food: A High Price for Healthy Food; What Food Says About Class in America; Millennial Foodies
- Homelessness: The Pope on Panhandling; How Utah Keeps the American Dream Alive
- Love: Self Love; Love Love; Job Love
- Meditation & Mindfulness: Stop Hustling and Get Your Life Back; The Luxury of Silence; Should Schools Teach Kids to Meditate?
- Minimalism: Downsizing the American Dream; Stuffocation; How Far Can Amazon Go? Round Two: Welcome to AirSpace; The White Wall Controversy
- Modern Manners: A Last Bastion of Civility, The South Sees Manners Decline; 27 Etiquette Rules For Our Time; How To Be Polite Round Two: The Lost Art of Letter Writing; An Online Generation Redefines Mourning; How to Write a Condolence Note
- Morning/Daily Routines: Lessons Learned From 98 Morning Routines; Routines: Comforting or Confining?; Different Morning Routines: Here's What Made Me Happiest
- New Years: New Year, New You? Forget It; The Cost of Holding On; What Do You Like About Yourself? Round Two: My Year of No Shopping; The Best New Years Game; You May Want to Marry My Husband
- Patriotism: John McCain's Farewell Letter; Straining To Keep Faith With America
- Privacy/Family: Don't Post About Me on Social Media, Children Say; How I Protect My Family on Instagram Round Two: We Want Privacy But Can't Stop Sharing; When Kids Realize Their Whole Life is Already Online
- Race/Whiteness: What Does it Mean to be White; Action Items for New Allies; When White Parents Won't Integrate Public Schools
- Relationships: These Questions That Will Save Your Relationships; Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear; Understanding Which 'Love Language' My Husband Speaks Changed Our Relationship
- Sustainable Fashion: Why Consumers Forget Unethical Business Practices; Behind a $13 Shirt, a $6-An-Hour Worker; What is Sustainable Fashion and Why is it So Expensive?
- Technology/Unplugged: Tech's Best Feature: The Off Switch; Vacation Sabotage: Don't Let It Happen To You; The Case for Vacation Round Two: Alexa, Should We Trust You?; I Cut the 'Big Five' Tech Giants From My Life, It Weas Hell; Alexa is a Revelation For The Blind
- Wealth: Can Money Buy You Happiness?; 4 Women with 4 Very Different Incomes Open Up About the Lives They Can Afford; Want To Be Happy? Stop Being So Cheap!; How FOMO Can Ruin Your Finances Round Two / FIRE: An Intro to the FIRE Life; What Everyone is Getting Wrong About FIRE; How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank
- Women's History: This is How March Became Women's History Month; Why Girls Beat Boys at School and Lose to Them in the Office; We Aren't Nags - We're Just Fed Up: How Emotional Labor is Dragging Down Gender Equality
- Work Life: Is There Life After Work?; How To Close The Gender Gap; Career Tips From Entrepreneurs Round Two: The Work You Do, The Person You Are; The Dotted Lines; What the Working Class is Still Trying to Tell Us
Photo credit: allforthememories.com
