INTERVIEW: Aubrey & Saeed

Two beloved members of our CreativeMornings Columbus Community are headed to Baltimore very soon. We wanted to celebrate both of them and their contributions to CreativeMornings. This is Aubrey & Saeed’s last month after a solid 2+ years of showing up, both as official and unofficial volunteers, helping to make these mornings run smoothly. I had a chance to sit down with them and reflect on their life in Columbus and being an integral part of the CM community. 

Have you been a part of CreativeMornings in other cities?  

Aubrey: Only as a guest. I went to CreativeMornings in New York City a couple of times when I was working there. When Saeed and I moved to Columbus, I didn’t know anyone other than Saeed. I was nervous about becoming codependent and was eager to embed myself in the Columbus community. When the CreativeMornings Columbus chapter put out a call for volunteers, I thought getting involved would be a great way to get to know the community.

Did you volunteer on your first day of it? Like, right where you went? 

Aubrey: I went to one or two of the virtual events before volunteering. But, I was a volunteer at the first back-in-person gathering. Brandi and Autumn had onboarded a great little team to get things going again in person, which I was happy to be a part of. 

What is your role with CreativeMornings?  

Aubrey: I’m currently the Volunteer Lead, but I started as a setup and registration volunteer, which included getting the space set up, welcoming attendees, and other organizational tasks. 

Saeed: I’m only peripherally involved. I usually help Aubrey where I can and attend events as often as my school and teaching schedule allows. 

Do you have a favorite memory from your last couple of years of CreativeMornings?

Aubrey: It’s so hard to say. If I can speak more generally, I admire how much our community has grown over the last couple of years. By the end of that first year back in-person, we had a solid, engaged team of volunteers and a wonderful group of community members that consistently came to every event. From welcoming people at the door to hearing La read the manifesto to getting to know our regular attendees, the energy of our events over the last couple of years has been so infectious.

Do you have a favorite memory from a CreativeMornings experience? 

Saeed: I have to agree that hearing La read the manifesto is a highlight each time I attend a CreativeMornings event. 

Okay. So you said that you have moved around a lot in that, it sounds like CreativeMornings is one of the first places that know you’ll find community. Are there other things on your list, where you go to find people that are your type of people?  

Aubrey: Yes. An unexpected place for me, but when I moved to Columbus, I started doing CrossFit for the first time. I wanted to get out of the house, I needed to move, and there was a gym nearby so I thought, I’ll just try it out and see. I go more for socializing than for working out, but I love it. I also happened to find a community that accepts everyone and encourages people to come as they are. So that’s been a supportive community too. 

Saeed: I’ve met some of my closest friends either through school or from doing music in the city years ago. 

What is your “rich life” something that you value as a couple or individual that you would splurge on because it’s what you care about?

Saeed: Objects that contribute to our day-to-day experiences. If we do find ourselves with disposable income, we’ll make a stop at Spoonful Records downtown. We’ve also prioritized time in nature and planned some National Park visits in the past few years. Those trips feel like a luxury.

Aubrey: Our space. Especially as someone who works from home, I put a lot of value on a comfortable and liveable space. It’s where I’m going to spend most of my life, so I want it to be a place of joy and warmth and relaxation. Saeed and I also got really into hosting other people over the last couple of years. We splurge on the best ingredients and host groups big and small quite often because it adds so much richness to our lives.

Saeed: We recently got more tableware, too. 

Aubrey: Yeah we needed more settings! It was nice to finally have enough plates to host a big group.

Do you care to share part of your daily routine or rituals? What are some other things that you do individually or together day to day that nobody would know unless they were under your roof? 

Aubrey: In terms of kind of like day-to-day routine and ritual, I mean, I don’t want to steal Saeed’s answer, but it’s coffee. Coffee is a big part of our daily routine in this household. It’s our protected time in the morning.

Who makes it? What’s your favorite method? Where do you get beans?  

Saeed: I’m not precious about the type of coffee or even the process. It’s just how we start every day. Beyond that, seeking nature and going on daily walks have become big parts of our routine. 

Aubrey: Yeah. I also routinely spend a lot of time on FaceTime with my family. I’m the oldest of four and I’m very close with my siblings. We hang out like we would if we were in the same physical space. We just go about our lives while we chat.

Are you chopping vegetables, cooking, and stuff while you’re talking?

Yeah. Oftentimes I’m cooking or doing dishes while we talk. At least once a week, I’ll chat with my brother who also works from home during our lunch hour. 

Do you plan it or do you just call? 

We just call and sometimes, once every couple weeks, all four of us get onto the same call. I love spending time with them. It’s a big part of the reason that we’re moving back to the East Coast – to be closer to family. 

What is a meal that each of you cooks often?

Saeed: We make a lot of Pakistani food. One of our weeknight go-tos is chana masala. 

Aubrey: Yeah, if I’m in charge of making dinner in the summer I’ll make a fresh basil and mint pesto. That’s my go-to. One of the first gifts I ever gave Saeed was a pasta maker, so when we’re feeling extra energetic, we make the pasta from scratch too. 

Is there a food on your bucket list to learn how to make?

Aubrey: We were watching a video of someone making a croissant recently. I would love to be able to make laminated pastry like that well. 

That kind of links to my next question, which is, as creative people, are there things that you like, choose to do the longer or hard way, like versus buying something? Is there something that you make that is inconvenient, but you enjoy it?

Aubrey: Yes, so many things. As part of my degree in industrial design, I learned how to make a lot of things with my hands.  So, I feel like I have a basic knowledge of most hand skills. I’ve tried woodworking, knitting, sewing,  embroidery,  quilting,  ceramics, and I’m sure there are others that I can’t think of now. In recent years, it’s been mostly knitting for me. I have a pair of socks in progress now, but the second pair of socks that I ever knit, I made with like this nice, colorful merino wool and I wear them whenever it’s chilly out. I’m so proud of them.

How long do you think it took to make them?  

Aubrey: A long time. I would guess upwards of 80 hours? I just love the quality of handmade textile projects. You can wear them again and again and they don’t fall apart. I’ve watched them so many times and they’re holding up, which is exactly what I wanted. 

Saeed: I recently planted a garden with plants that I had grown from seed. I really enjoyed spending time in the greenhouse each week tending to those plants. The enjoyment was very much derived from the process – something I would have missed out on if I had simply bought the mature versions of the plants I was growing. 

Circling back to CreativeMornings, is there a favorite part of the flow that you love? 

Aubrey: I love seeing people’s faces when they walk in. It’s what drew me to volunteer with CreativeMornings and something that, despite my role expanding into many other territories, I continue to enjoy. The smile that you get when you remember someone’s name and they weren’t expecting you to remember it, or you say, “Happy Friday!” and someone lights up. I love the feeling of getting to welcome people into the space, as they kind of like, walk in.

Saeed: I like when we break out into smaller groups to discuss questions posed by the speaker. I also enjoy the energy in the room post-presentation.

Do you have a piece of advice or a mantra for the people who follow in your footsteps and take over your role, the big shoes you’re leaving behind?

Aubrey: No advice, really, but I want to just acknowledge that CreativeMornings has been such a big part of my life over the last two plus years. The team is incredible and we’ve grown so much together. Everyone brings a unique skill set and niche to the team, which works so well for a volunteer-led organization. Our growth over the last couple of years has been a group effort, but I want to give a big shout out to Brandi and Autumn who have absolutely hustled to make our chapter what it is today. I feel so lucky to have learned from them. And to have been a part of our little leadership team of three. I’m excited to see how the volunteer team and the community continues to expand and thrive in the coming years.

Interview by Rachel Joy Barehl, a mindful matchmaker and photographer in Columbus.