The morning continued with Andrew Warner and Tess Vigeland who spoke about leaving a stable and successful job and the reality of what that entails which is not always pretty, but it always leads to better things. 

I left after these speakers in order to search for beer and coffee because those are the two things, along with the food, that you journey to portland for. After my shopping, I went to grab a quick bite, had a fantastic and encouraging conversation with another WDSer and couldn't get into my afternoon session with Jonathan Fields on how to live the good life. Instead, I sat in the park, ate my leftovers and read until I experienced an incredible urge to nap, which I did. And it was glorious

The afternoon started with a few more attendee stories and an amazing performance by Steve Schalchlin who played and sang a few of his own songs detailing his fight with HIV that I admit, made me tear up and attempt not to cry profusely. 

Finally, we ended the weekend with Don Miller who spoke about creating a meaningful life with 3 basic questions:

1. Who are you

2. What do you want

3. What is the first step

"We are not our failures. We are not our successes" - Don Miller

At this point, I couldn't believe the weekend was over. I was just getting started! Chris surprised us with a theatre wide toast of sparkling cider and we spent a few minutes giving standing ovations to the wonderful volunteers, speakers and to Chris for organizing this epic weekend. 

The night wrapped with a drink at the rooftop bar of The Nines, dinner at a korean BBQ food truck and a fantastic dance party in Pioneer square and I admit, I got involved in the bollywood dancing which also involved a bit of gangnam style. Yes, I went there. 

We shut the square down at midnight after 3 hours of dancing to the 80's and I headed back to my hotel thoroughly exhausted but so content and excited to implement the ideas I had in my head into my life. 

As I sit here, in my house back in the bay, I still can't believe that I spent 4 days with some truly amazing people. I laughed, cried, dreamt and was inspired to live a remarkable and unconventional life. I still can't really put in words what I took away from this weekend. I did, however, make sure to sign up for next year's WDS which gives me a goal. I commit to making progress on my dreams so that when I hit Portland in July 2014, I'll be able to share a better story. 

Thank you to everyone that I met. Thank you for your dreams, your smiles, your joy and your enthusiasm. My life has been forever changed by all of you. Thank you to the presenters, the volunteers and to Chris for working so hard to make this dream into a reality. You all inspire me to live my dream, to be different and to love myself and my dreams. 

I can't wait until next year!

All pictures, unless noted, are property of Armosa Studios. Master set can be found here