To be honest, I’m still processing all of what HU Connexion was for me. What it meant to me. And just how to put it into words.

For those of you who don’t know, I also write for a company called Health Union (HU). Connexion is a conference they’ve held for 3 years in a row in Philadelphia. Its goal is to bring the employees of Health Union and the advocates together to connect and learn about each other and more about our roles.

It was my first solo trip. Honestly, I was terrified. I’m not used to being out and about in a city all on my own, let alone flying to, and being in a completely new city. I had a lot of anxiety in the days leading up to my trip, and the night before, I had a breakdown and almost didn’t go.

I knew this trip would be good for me though, something inside of me kept telling me that, so I decided to just go. Thank god I did.

The First Night

I arrived in Philly the night before the conference started. I got in, Ubered to the hotel, checked in, and brought my bags upstairs. I think we all know this, I am not a 4-star hotel person. So this was pretty amazing to me. As soon as I dropped my bags off, I headed straight to Target.

When I got back into my room, I had a (not so great) pre-made salad from Target for dinner, FaceTimed with my family, and watched Mr. Robot to end my night. 

Connexion Day 1

I was extremely anxious on Day 1. I got up early (for me), showered, got dressed and put makeup on. If you know me well, you know that this is a BIG accomplishment for me. 

I headed downstairs to where the conference was, and as I walked up the stairs to the main area, I heard someone shout “STEFF!”. I noticed one of my site leads, Bridget, was the one who shouted my name. I immediately felt about 10x better. I went to go say hi, and then headed over to get my badge.

Breakfast was between 8:30 am and 9:30 am, and testing my social anxiety, I went and sat at a table with one girl sitting at it. We introduced ourselves, and more people came to join us. All of us were just learning what websites each other wrote for, and where we came in from. I met my other site lead, Anthony, during breakfast as well. I also learned that I was the only one there from my AS site, which was okay, but we definitely missed the other advocates.

We had a presentation from the Co-Founders of Health Union, where I got a shout out (I was shocked) for being the newest advocate at the conference! It was a weird feeling seeing my name pop up on that screen.  

Next was our keynote speaker, Nora McInerny. I had never heard of her but knew that her TED Talk had gone viral recently. Let me just say that I loved this woman. She is amazingly strong, funny, witty, and just about every good word you can think of. She gave an amazing presentation to us. I highly recommend that you go check out her TED Talk on grief. Her mind is brilliant.

The rest of the day consisted of more presentations, meals, conversing with everyone and learning all about the other advocates there.

It was a really long day for me and by 4:00 pm my back was on fire. Luckily we got a break between 5 and 6, so I just went up to my hotel room and lied down for an hour with my heating pad on. The rest of the night was dinner at the HU offices, and shopping at Trader Joe’s. I went to bed pretty early for me, and that was that.

Connexion Day 2

Sadly, day 2 was our second and last day at Connexion. I met up with a few of the people I met the day before for breakfast downstairs and met some new people too. 

We had some more presentations just like day 1, a big one for me personally being a presentation from the design team. If you haven’t seen them, the graphics that are made up for our articles over on ankylosingspondylitis.net (and all of Health Union’s other sites, too) are amazing. I love them. It was really cool to get to see the people behind our articles’ pictures.

As quickly as Connexion started, it ended just as quick. I didn’t think I would be so upset, but I was. I wanted to cry. I was genuinely happy, and I haven’t been in the last little while. I told my therapist when I got back that it was probably the first time since my symptoms appeared (Feb 2017) that I felt truly understood. Being surrounded by people with chronic illnesses, whether similar or not at all, was so refreshing. It’s hard to put it into words, but I loved this experience so much.

It makes me so happy to look back on the pictures I took, the connections I made, and the experiences I had. I needed this trip. So all I can say is thank you, Health Union. Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity.