Taking Chances with Activities

COVID has made us realize how much we rely on day-to-day life to see and connect with some people in our lives.

If you’re a student like Noelle, you can really understand this -- how many of your friends do you only connect with when you see them in class or at a party or spot them on campus? It’s not that those people aren’t important or fun to spend time with, just that our connection is more casual and depends on normal life to make it happen.

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to students. We all get busy, and time just slips away. But as Noelle says, it’s so important to make time for each other, no matter how full our schedules get.

Activities, activities, activities

It’s so great to talk with the people who are important to you, and we’re grateful for Zoom and other tech for making it possible, but nothing beats getting together and doing something fun.

We know we still have to be safe, but we can do that and still enjoy time together. So Vanessa and Noelle set up an Activity on Chances to go to SUGARFISH for sushi. The restaurant not only has “melt in your mouth” sushi, it has a special place in every Lipschutz heart!

Noelle invited Vanessa with a date, time, and location, which made it easy for both (no standing around, staring at Yelp and waiting for inspiration). Plus, Chances reminds you and keeps your invite handy, so you don’t have to dig through texts to find it!

Noelle summed it up perfectly: “Something I realized from our sushi date is wow, I love hanging out with the people that mean the world to me. We just need to make time for these relationships, you know. Even if you have a hectic schedule, send that invite, and if someone accepts it, that’s exciting! You have something to look forward to at the end of the week.”

Like Dad Rob said, it’s so great to be able to actually SEE each other again, even if it’s over the top of a mask. “There’s no activity too small or too big that isn’t worth thinking about doing right now when we’ve all been cooped up for the last year or so.”

Staying COVID safe with Activities

So what activities can we do and stay COVID safe? Lots of restaurants have outdoor seating and are taking measures to keep people distanced and safe. And, as Vanessa said, that one activity can turn into a whole day. After great food and conversation at SUGARFISH, the sisters went to the Grove to pass out Chances flyers.

You can talk and smile from six feet away, Vanessa reminded us, so if there’s someone you want to connect or reconnect with, go ahead and invite them to an activity!

As Rob said, not only are you having fun with Activities, you’re creating some great memories. “When you look back at the times in your life that were important, it’s typically about experiences you had. And often, it’s with people. Mostly, it’s with people.” There will be an “after-COVID,” so how will you look back on this time?

So if you’re not ready to risk going out and meeting people in person, there are still plenty of things you can do. Arrange a morning chat, call, or video chat to talk about your plans and goals for the day, just to stay in touch. Or enjoy planning for the time when life returns to something more like normal! Put a vacation to Cabo on some calendars, then arrange a Zoom call with margaritas and decide where you’ll go and what you’ll do.

And if you don’t want to meet in person or if you’re separate by miles and miles, try using Chances virtual activities. You can turn a zoom link or any other activity you can link to with a URL, into a rich experience, add your description, upload your own photo or image, and create some poetry in the description. Finally, invite one or more people. It’s super quick and fun and we all find we look forward to these meetings more than any others.

Don’t let COVID shut you down, Dad says, be creative in how you keep in touch.

Easier than texting!

Vanessa and calendars -- don’t get us started. Pre-Chances, planning something with Ness meant putting it on a social calendar like Google, then reminding her in the days before, again the day of, again an hour before, then resending the invite when she was already 20 minutes late because she couldn’t find the invite(s) in the thousands of texts she gets in a week.

“Planning an event or activity has to be easier than sending a text,” she said. It was important to Vanessa to get this right, so that Activities were all about fun, not frustration.

Vanessa generally doesn’t like calendars and won’t use them. Noelle, on the other hand, came out of the womb with a smartphone in one hand.

Vanessa’s insight on why they saw calendars differently really resonated, and it probably will with many of you: “The Chances team is trying to redefine what ‘calendar’ means,” Noelle said. “I feel like usually for Vanessa, the calendar meant oh, you have to put in an appointment. It was a had to statement. But now it’s like, oh, I want to do this, I want to plan something. And I think that’s what Gen Z wants. We want something to look forward to after a long day of school or soccer practice. It’s fun to plan fun things. So instead of having to do it, we want our Chance Takers to be excited to do it.”

And that totally shines through the app: The calendar is beautiful, and you can personalize invitations with pictures. “Your social activities have to fit into your life,” as Rob said. So the calendar makes it possible to really personalize the invitations and make them easy, fun, and stress free. “We’re prioritizing your social life,” Vanessa said.

Send it!

Instead, set up an event on Chances, something you can safely do during COVID, and invite people. Invite old friends, new friends, people you want to develop a relationship with. Plan your event, give it a date, time, and location and … send it.

Like Vanessa said, it can start a great conversation! You don’t have to invite someone to Hawaii with you (though our bags are packed, just sayin’), but getting to know each other through activities is so much better than trading pick-up lines on a dating app.

Take a pottery class, go play soccer, check out a destination website together to plan for next year, or put a beautiful wrapper on your next Zoom call! Do a bucket list thing with someone new or with a bestie you’ve known forever. Then let us know on Instagram what you did and how it turned out.

Until next time, #ChanceTakers!