At some point while we were planning OmFest, I read the story Krutal told about Om. Krutal was young (not even 21 yet), and Om’s 40th birthday party was at a bar. Krutal figured he’d have to stay outside. Instead, as he put it, “Om made sure I was included.” It stuck with me.
“That was who [Om] was, he made everyone feel like they belonged.”
— Krutal Desai
I thought about that a lot while we were building OmFest, because, if I’m being completely transparent, there were moments when I wasn’t sure I belonged there. Suddenly I was on calls surrounded by people who had known him for years. Successful founders, investors, writers, photographers, people from the earliest days of tech. People who had traveled with him, worked with him, eaten with him, argued with him, and loved him.
And then there was me. The person who was supposed to take all of those pieces and somehow turn them into an experience that felt like him. Before some of those early calls, I would tell myself: I belong here. It sounds a little ridiculous now, but I needed to hear it.
The people around Om never made me prove that I belonged. They answered my endless questions, introduced me to other people, told me stories, and corrected me when I got something wrong. They trusted me with his things and his words and their memories of him. Most importantly, they let me lead.
I would sometimes caveat something by saying, “I never knew Om, but…” And more than once, someone who did know him would tell me some version of: “You know him pretty well now.”
The community around Om had done for me exactly what Krutal said Om had done for him. They made room. They brought me in and they made me feel like I belonged there.
I never got to meet Om. But through the way his people treated me, I got to experience something important about him anyway.
Maybe belonging was one more thing Om passed along.
Post 5 of 60 · Making OmFest
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