The Flip Flop Conference officially started in July of 2011.
At the time, I had recently moved to Neptune Beach, Florida. I had dreams of living near the ocean in my own little beach house. Unfortunately, my dream home was quickly turning into something more closely resembling an HGTV nightmare.
So what did I do?
I invited my friends down for a weekend so we could forget about real life for awhile.
Five friends. Three days. My new beach house or shack, as I affectionately referred to it, and a plan to have fun.
On the second day, we headed to the beach. We swam in the ocean, lounged in the sand, and eventually wandered over to the Beaches Town Center to do a little shopping.
At one point, we walked into a small shop—one of my favorite stores—and the shopkeeper looked at our group and asked if we were in town for a conference.
A conference?
We all laughed and told her no. I had just moved to the area and everyone was visiting for a girls weekend.
Later that afternoon, while eating lunch at the Sun Dog, we couldn't stop laughing about it.
Apparently we looked organized enough to attend a conference.
Or maybe we looked lost enough to need one.
Either way, the idea stuck.
Somewhere between our sandwiches and frozen drinks, someone suggested that if we weren't attending a conference, maybe we should start one.
A Flip Flop Conference.
The idea got funnier with every retelling.
By the next day, while wandering around St. Augustine, we had fully committed to the bit. We started assigning titles.
Cindy became Head of Security.
Amy became CFO.
Neha was Secretary and Historian.
Kara became CTO.
Lisa was Club Navigator.
Before the weekend was over, the Flip Flop Club had officially been established.
What started as a joke somehow became a tradition.
Life, of course, had other plans.
Years passed before another official conference occurred. There were careers to build, children to raise, moves to make, marriages, divorces, and all the other unexpected twists and turns that life throws at us.
Then we found ourselves together again at our friend Neha's wedding.
Someone mentioned the Flip Flop Conference. Someone else suggested we do another one. And just like that, the conference was back in session.
Over the years the membership expanded. Pat, Jennifer, and Diane joined the group. Destinations changed. Houses changed. Jobs changed.
But the conference remained.
What's interesting about the Flip Flop Conference is that most of us are connected through one person: Neha.
Cindy and Lisa were my friends first. Lisa and I have known each other since our freshman year of college. Cindy became my roommate through a mutual friend.
Everyone else came into my life through Neha.
If you've ever met Neha, you immediately understand why. She is one of the most genuine people I've ever known. There's nothing fake about her. She welcomes people into her life the same way some people adopt stray cats. Before you know it, you've somehow become part of the family.
And that's really what happened with all of us.
Somewhere along the way, a collection of individual friendships became a group.
We knew each other in our twenties, before husbands, before children, before careers took unexpected turns, and before life became quite so complicated.
We went dancing.
We traveled.
We laughed.
We acted ridiculous.
We built friendships that somehow survived all the years that followed.
Every person brings something different to the conference.
Jennifer can have an entire Uber laughing, including the driver.
Pat arrives prepared for any situation imaginable and has been known to pack everything short of her kitchen sink. I say "short of" because she has actually shown up with pots, pans, and even a coffee maker. She is also one of the most positive people I know.
Diane somehow manages to get seven women to make decisions. Her battle cry of "Freeeeedom!" has become the conference motto.
Lisa remains one of the most thoughtful and empathetic people I've ever known. She also continues to insist that her margaritas are top shelf. They are not. But they get the job done.
Kara belongs near water and always will. If she wasn't born a dolphin, I can only assume she was one in a previous life.
Amy is the quiet one. At least until something falls over. Then we know exactly where Amy is.
And somehow, despite all of our differences, every conference feels exactly the same.
The destinations change.
The stories get longer.
Our knees make more noise than they used to.
These days, conversations are just as likely to include physical therapy exercises, aging parents, and medication reminders as they are plans for adventure.
Yet the moment we're together, it feels like no time has passed at all.
Looking back, the Flip Flop Conference was never really a conference.
There were no keynote speakers.
No breakout sessions.
Just a group of women who kept finding their way back to one another.
Through marriages and divorces.
Through children and careers.
Through moves across the country.
Through all the twists and turns life inevitably brings.
That shopkeeper in Neptune Beach thought we were attending a conference. She wasn't joking. She genuinely thought we were there for one.
What she couldn't have known was that fifteen years later, we'd still be laughing about it.
Maybe that's because the Flip Flop Conference was never about the destination.
It wasn't about Florida.
Or Herman, Missouri.
Or Grafton, Illinois.
Or wherever we happened to gather next.
It was about friendship.
It was about remembering who we were before life got so complicated.
And in a world where staying connected gets harder every year, eight women continuing to find their way back to one another might be the most important conference I will ever attend.