amayzine memories
(because I'm flying out)
Yes, today is the day that would eventually come. I am going to leave the safe Amayzine nest. After 3 years, 3 months, and certainly 2500 posts later (this is a guess, but I don't think I'm far off), I'm going to clean up my little desk. Sometimes it's time for new steps, but with such a nice school of learning in my baggage, I'm willing to take them.
As a farewell, a collection of fun and beautiful moments from the past years. Memories that I will cherish forever. Because really, working at Amayzine is absolutely the best.
1. I sent May-Britt an email, on March 19, 2013 to be precise, with something along the lines of: “Hey, I don't really know what I want in life. After working full-time in the hospitality industry for 6 years, I'm ready for something else. Can I come and take a look at what you do? Writing seems really fun to me, especially about food, although I also devour all the fashion magazines. I already have a really cool bag (Gucci), but I really only wear sneakers.”
A week later, I was sitting across from her and May asked if I wanted to jump into the new adventure called Amayzine. An online fashion and lifestyle magazine didn't exist in the Netherlands at that time.
“You can test restaurants, try out the latest sports, we go to all the Fashion Weeks and then you will look for the tastiest and healthiest spots.” I immediately said: “YES, I'm in.” The best decision ever.
2. Wait, let me first put on the song “Amazing” by Seal, will you do that too (if you can)? That immediately brings me back to the feeling we had in our startup phase. We weren't online yet, but almost. I collected songs in which the word 'amazing' was sung quite often. Like by Bruno Mars in the song ‘ hereJust the way you are‘’. That song has become a bit of the soundtrack of our site.’3. May and I literally started in an attic room (in a gigantic building, but we had a small office in the attic). To set things up a bit, we went shopping: binders, a huge writing pad of 1 by 1 for our desks, a vase, a bunch of flowers, and a pinboard where we could put all our (expense) receipts. We quickly learned that a receipt with a hole for the tax office is worth nothing. I can tell you: we haven't become much wiser since then.
4. When you work at Amayzine, you quickly start talking in abbreviations. I believe I actually started it myself, and got everyone hooked. Agenda is agen, relationship is a rela, enthusiastic is enthou, negative is nega. Okay, you might find that super fun or super stupid. But Liesbeth had also pretty much mastered 'my language' and we actually found that very superfun. So fun that we thought: come on, let's put it on video and that became.
this video. And I still find it very fun to watch. We were strongly considering a version two, but in the meantime, we had received so much crap from people who didn't think it was worth anything, that we didn't dare to do it anymore. But don't think that we now talk “normally” again. 5. Amayzine TV, HA! I'm about to say something totally not healthy-Jets, but that program made sure that I (and Liesbeth I believe) quite often lit a cigarette (I HAVE STOPPED DOING THIS NOW), because man, that was all so scary. I still don't really dare to watch it back. What a kid, that HEAD, that voice! And oh dear if you go look it up now.
6. A little blunder. May and I always think that we are a super organized team together. Independently, we can be quite chaotic, but together we feel like an incredibly structured match. So we decided to put May's email on 'out of office' together one time. Neither of us had any idea how to do that, but as a team, of course, we did. Panic broke out because the email: “Hello, with a glass of wine on the right and the sea on the left, I will be back in the office next Monday” was sent to ALL EMAIL ADDRESSES we had ever been in contact with. “The wifi has to go!” someone shouted, so I ran to the fuse box where there was also a wifi box. In the end, a brilliant smart computer guy from a hundred kilometers away had to come to solve this.
7. Well, I was thinking: should I include this? I don't want to make it too sappy and too ‘inside’, but yes, it is a very important point in my life. Well okay, here goes: I have had quite a few secret dates “around the corner” during work hours. Yes people, that cute neighbor boy who worked next to the Amayzine editorial office has been my boyfriend for two years now.
8. Then lastly. New York. I think back to a lunch, together with May at Morandi on the terrace with burrata, pulpo salad, and green peppers.
“Hey Jet, shall we have a nice glass with it?”.
“One glass turned into two and more. We talked about work, men, love, and dreams. What friends talk about. And that is also exactly the moment I remember that our work relationship changed into a dear friendship; for life.”
And now I'm going to fly out. Thank you dear readers. Thank you Josselin, Danielle, Robin, Kiki, Annick, Lilian, Elke, Theo, Daphne, Maartje, Simone, Renske, Tessa, Lisa, Bente, and Annabelle from Amayzine for the incredibly pleasant time. Thank you dear May, for the opportunity you gave me and the freedom to grow, thank you for your listening ear and for your friendship.
Yes, today is the day that would eventually come. I am going to leave the safe Amayzine nest. After 3 years, 3 months, and certainly 2500 posts later (this is a guess...
