Our Story & How we got here
Hi I’m Monica, co-founder of ThirdSpace.
Spring is here and with it a reminder to slow down and and take in where we are today, in this moment. It’s easy to keep moving for the sake of momentum until we get lost in where we’re going. Sometimes we forget to acknowledge just how far we’ve come. As I look back on the past few months it’s humbling to see where we are now and to recognize the impact of all of you.
In four months I have gone from feeling like a buoy in the sea to a boat that’s been anchored. Community is powerful in that way. If you look back at human existence you will see how we went from tribal living to communes, to now living alone in a studio apartment. In America we are socialized to think that that level of independence is our goal. Complete independence, using apps like Instagram and task-rabbit to fulfill our need for human interaction and help.
The question I’ve been asking myself now for a few years is are we happy this way? Maybe some are, but my hunch is that most of us are not. That deep down it doesn’t satisfy our basic human need for connection. At the end of the day, we all want one thing: to feel like we belong.
For a long time I was searching for that feeling, being a part of something larger than myself. It’s easy to lose our sense of belonging as adults when the organized communities of school, sports or family are gone. We are dropped into the world like pins on Google maps.
As I navigated adulthood I became frustrated with the lack of accessible community. It seemed like everything had a cost, we joke, but in New York it can feel like it costs money to breathe. Even when I found “community events” they were still $35-60 to attend one time. It just didn’t make sense to me.
No one should have to pay to have community. No one should have to pay to belong.
I started dreaming about a space where people could go that was free, that was open for people to just exist. After some time of looking at MANY MANY lofts, Jackson and I stumbled upon this one. We spent a few months building out the physical space, making it feel like a place we’d want to hang out in, a place people would want to come back to, a home away from home.
In February we launched our first program, Office Hours. What started as a “we’ll see how this goes” has turned into our favorite part of the week where we get to see the same faces coming back, where we get to laugh, eat and chat together.
Now with the help of our team we’ve launched four different programming types. It’s incredible to see the interest, support and following we’ve grown through the past couple of months. To each and everyone of you, thank you for showing up and believing in what we’re doing.
When we started ThirdSpace our intention was to create accessible ways for people to connect. We’re still figuring out what that looks like and how we can continue to create space for you all to just exist. If you have ideas, please reach out, our team is made up of our community.
This month our goal is to take a step back from programming to take some time to figure out how to create a financially sustainable model for operating so we can continue to provide more space and experiences for you all at no cost!
We appreciate all of the support thus far and can’t wait to grow our community. With that in mind, we will be using this platform as a way for us to stay connected outside of our weekly programs and to keep you all posted on what’s on our mind at ThirdSpace.
We hope to see you at the space this month!
Monica, Jackson, & ThirdSpace team
icons! killing it :))
can’t wait for all of it ❤️