Just Call Me Keynote Speaker Melissa

Well I did it! I gave my first keynote speech yesterday.

It went pretty darn well too, if I do say so myself.

You may remember last December when I was featured in a story on the local news about creative ways people were making money in the valley despite (or perhaps thanks to) the slowing job market. They talked about me because of Knits by Meliss (you know the hats I knit and sell).

Well, the woman in charge of organizing this conference saw that news story and thought that I looked like just the kind of inspiring person she wanted to be the keynote speaker for her conference geared towards teaching young girls the importance of rediscovering the dying arts (things like knitting and canning and baking bread and writing letters). So she asked me if I would and (with a little more than a little hesitation) said sure! Why not?

Well, writing a speech is a heck of a lot harder than I ever would have thought it would be, especially since I waited until four days before the conference to start writing it... oh the joys of procrastination. But after a very stressful Friday afternoon when I discovered that my speech was only about 7 minutes long instead of the requested 15-20, I added some more words and I got it done!

The speech making itself was pretty exciting... all the girls laughed at my jokes (mostly) and asked me a bunch of questions afterwards. I even got a few hat orders!

I was excited.

I don't anticipate having to give any more speeches any time soon, if I did, I don't think I'd mind too much.

It was kind of fun!

I posted my speech below (you'll have to click the 'read more' button) if you want to read it... It's pretty long, so you probably don't, but just in case... here it is!

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Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for having me and I'm honored that you all think I am worthy of being your speaker this morning.

When Ms. Robinson asked me to be the keynote speaker for this conference I was, quite frankly very flattered, but a little scared. I'm 23, I work two part-time jobs, and I still live with my parents and three cats. And then there was the whole speech part… aside from getting my wisdom teeth taken out next Thursday, writing this speech was probably the most stressful thing I've done since I bought my car last fall. Although that is probably because, true to my very procrastinating nature I waited until exactly four days ago to start writing it. 

A word to the wise. Procrastination is a horrible character flaw.

But I digress.

Ms. Robinson assured me that I was an interesting and inspiring person, thanks mostly I'm sure to my small business endeavor Knits by Meliss that made me a local celebrity for about 30 seconds back in December when I was featured in a story on WHSV about creative ways people in the valley are making ends meet in a slowing job market. I guess being featured on the news and forging a small business can make a person kind of interesting.

I'll let you be the judge of that.

I grew up here and I graduated from WMHS in 2005. Like I'm sure many of you do, I wanted to go to a college that was somewhere hip, happening, and most importantly as far away from Augusta County as possible. Most of my college-bound classmates did just that… they headed down to Virginia Tech and William and Mary or across the mountain to UVA. One of my friends decided to go to art school in Chicago and another went to Butler University's amazing dance program.

I went somewhere really cool. Elizabethtown College… located right on the outskirts of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

You know… where the Amish people live.

But Etown was great school and I had the time of my life there… besides, who can hate on a school situated so close to an M&M factory that it's campus constantly smelled like chocolate?

I decided that a major in Biotechnology and minor in Professional Writing would be the easiest way to navigate between my Jekyll and Hyde like career choices. Between my senior year of high school and my senior year of college, my career aspirations went from being an English teacher, to a physical therapist, to a cancer researcher, to a science journalist, to an editor.

Not quite a quantum leap, but close.

After graduating from Etown in 2009, in an attempt to determine if I really wanted to enter the slightly unstable publishing world, I spent the summer in Denver, Colorado at the University of Denver's Publishing Institute. After that program I was hooked.

Unfortunately, even if you're hooked on a career, as I soon found out, the career doesn't always hook you. So when I couldn't find a job in the publishing world, I moved back in with my parents (I know, every kid's worst nightmare, right? But it's not as bad as it seems) and started looking at the alternatives.

I ended up taking a communication class at a Mary Baldwin College. Taking that class was a great idea, because the professor told me about an opportunity to volunteer for a local publisher that would be a great resume booster and he got me in touch with the College's Communications, Marketing, and Public Affairs office which led to a part-time job.

Knits by Meliss actually started by accident. Two years ago when my cousin had a baby, I thought it would be neat to knit him a hat. I had just recently discovered the world of hat knitting (being a strict rectangular knitter before that) and I was really excited about it.

Well, it was adorable. (The hat I mean, although Justin has turned out to be a very cute kid too).

The adorableness was partly because I had picked out this real cute blue and green yarn that knitted itself into lots of stripes and patterns, but it was more than that, it was also the size. Little hats are just plain cuter than adult ones and I fell in love with making them. Unfortunately for me, while it seemed like all my friends were getting engaged or married every other day, no one I knew was having a baby or had any young kids.

So I took a leap.

I asked Shirley Robinson, a local business owner, if she would be interested in selling my hats at her store Grandma's Bait. I told her it would be perfect since she sells high quality children's clothing, and I would make her amazing hats. She said yes.

And so, in October 2009, Knits by Meliss was born.

Starting a small business type endeavor was really exciting. Not only did I enjoy having a reason to knit again, I also needed the extra income it would bring in. At the time, I was working two part-time jobs that were barely covering the college loans I had to pay each month, and I was also volunteering at the publishing house and taking ballet classes every day, which made it impossible to get a third job. So, by selling my hats, I could do fun things again, like occasionally give into my Starbucks Chai Tea obsession or buy myself a new dress or pair of jeans.

We didn't keep track of how many hats I made that first winter, but this year, I made and sold more than 60 hats between October and February. My three most popular designs were "Punk'in Head" a pumpkin hat, "Blossom" a hat shaped like an upside down flower, and (my personal favorite) "Snowy" the snowman hat.

Knitting is such a funny hobby. I guess you could almost say it's the thing I love to hate doing. I hate how long it takes to knit things, but I love the finished product. And usually the longer it takes to finish; the more I like the end result. I love that knitting has taught me patience, although it hasn't quite been able to tame my slight ADD tendencies, so I tend to keep at least four different knitting projects going at any one time. That way I can switch from one project to another when I get bored.

While Knits by Meliss is by no means a real full-fledged business that sells hats across the globe and rakes in millions, I'm ok with that. In fact, that's kind of what I love about it. If it was bigger, I might not be able to put as much time into each hat.

I love the challenge of creating a new design, whether it is to fulfill a customer's request for an orange earflap hat with grey trim, braids, and a pom-pom, or if it's something I thought of myself, like how to recreate a flower or snowman's head in hat form. I really enjoy watching people's reactions when I tell them that I made the hat they're about to buy. And I still can't quite get over the fact that people actually want to buy something that I made and that it is making them, their kid, or someone else's kid happy.

The ability to make someone else happy with something homemade is a hallmark of everything you are going to learn about today. The art of canning and baking and letter writing and DIY type stuff is so lost to our generation. But they're so important. They are part of our history, our traditions, and our heritage. Just like the name of this conference so clearly states, these arts are dying and it's up to us to make sure that they survive.

My mom cans and freezes vegetables from our garden and makes applesauce and jelly from produce that we either grow ourselves or buy from a farmers market. Then we give all our relatives jars of homemade salsa, applesauce, grape jelly, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, or roasted peanuts for Christmas. It is something that her mom taught her and that her grandmother taught her mom and that her great-grandmother taught her grandmother and so on. Eventually, I plan to continue the tradition and teach my kids.

When my dad was in graduate school he was so poor that his meals usually consisted of bread and cheese (he was a vegetarian). Every Sunday he would bake two loafs of bread that he would then eat over the course of the week. Now, he bakes much more recreationally, but whenever we have company dad always breaks out the baking equipment and makes at least two different types of bread,

from scratch

without a recipe.

I swear he's a genius.

This talent came in great use when my brother started dating a girl who is gluten intolerant and decided to bring her home for Thanksgiving.

Imagine a having a gluten-free Thanksgiving!

But dad got a bunch of books on baking the gluten-free way and managed to create a delicious dinner that not only included gluten-free bread, but gluten-free stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie.

What I'm trying to illustrate here is that we need to keep these dying traditions alive not just because of the personal sense of accomplishment that you get when you make things by hand, but because they benefit others.

Think about how exciting it is when you get a real honest to goodness letter in the mail!

My freshman year in college, my dad wrote me a letter every day, so that I would always have mail in my mailbox. They were really silly letters… he would talk about what the cats were doing or if there were birds on the bird feeders or what he had for breakfast. But that didn't matter to me. What did matter was how special I felt every time I opened up my mailbox and saw that tan envelope waiting for me. I saved all those letters and still look at them from time to time.

It's the connections that traditions and simple acts like letter writing create between friends and family members that make them so special and I think that's another reason why I'm so glad that I learned how to knit.

When I was little, my grandmother knit all the time and she loved making things like sweaters, mittens, hats, and scarves for me and my cousins. She knit a Christmas stocking for my mom and each of her two sisters when they were little and when they got married, she knit matching stockings for their husbands too. She went on to knit a stocking for each of her six grandchildren. One of my favorite baby pictures is of me wrapped up in my unfinished stocking on the night before my first Christmas Eve.

When my grandmother stopped knitting about seven years ago, because the arthritis in her hands got too bad, we were worried that no one would be able to keep the Christmas stocking tradition alive. But when I learned how to knit, she gave me her pattern books, so that when my cousins and I get married and have kids, I can carry on the family tradition.

But until that day comes, I think I'll stick to knitting hats.

This fall, I'll be going back to school to get my master's in publishing from George Washington University, but Knits by Meliss isn't going anywhere. And who knows, maybe I'll find a little shop in the DC area that wants my hats too.