Joining Hacker Paradise just for the first HP trip is like going on The Bachelor to find true love. (Especially during Arie’s season. Woof.) You don’t just do it for the now. You do it for the after. Sure BEING on the Bachelor is game changing; you get to get the eff out of Tampa, quit your dental receptionist job, AND learn how to apply fake eyelashes without a mirror!
But AFTER the cameras are down and you’re on your Spirit airline flight back to your normal life it hits you, being a Bachelor contestant IS your new normal! You don’t have to go back to your old job, you get to hawk Sugar Bear hair gummies on Insta now! And be on spin-offs. And stage fake fights with other contestants for tabloid coverage.
For non-bachelor fans, stay with us, we’re getting to the point right… NOW.
Your first HP trip
So, your first HP trip. That’s the big draw, and we get it. They are awesome. So awesome that 3 out of 4 alumni’s have joined HP on more than one trip. They keep coming back. Because it’s fun AF. And productive. And life changing. But when you’re looking at the trips page you may just be considering the dates and locations that HP is traveling to, and I want you to know that it’s so much more.
After your first HP trip, you are added into our alumni Slack* channel with almost 600 other HP’ers who become your instant extended friend circle.
*Slack is an app that makes communication with hundreds of people streamlined and gamified instead of feeling like a never-ending group text you accidentally joined. In Googling how to explain it to someone who doesn’t use it, I learned it stands for Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge, so there ya go.
You don’t (welp, shouldn’t) get married just for the wedding. And when you join HP, you’re joining a family that will be there long after that passport stamp dries. Cause we’re for life.
Alumni Roll Call
In addition to the fact that so many alumni keep coming back to do multiple trips with us, they also travel together and have their own meetups all over the world. We have a channel called #where-am-I and people post their schedule for the next month or two, and out of 575 people, there’s a great chance someone will be in the same city at the same time and want to meet up for lunch or coffee, or even travel with you. Even if they weren’t on your specific HP trip, HP has vouched for you, so that’s enough.
After my first HP trip, going home filled me with dread, and I was determined to get back on the road as soon as I could. Six weeks later I was in Italy, where I felt comfortable traveling alone, but wanted to go explore Eastern Europe. Montenegro specifically. I posted in #where-am-i of my plans, and sure enough, two other girls also wanted to check out Montenegro. AND Bulgaria, so we synced up and traveled for 10 days together, despite not knowing each other beforehand.
That never would have happened had I not done my first HP trip. I also met up with them and SEVEN other HPers a month later for a long weekend in Cardiff, Wales. We did some of the prettiest hikes I’ve ever done in my life, one included being chased by cows, and it also never would have happened without doing an HP trip first.
Slack it to me
There are also channels like #show-and-tell where you can share articles you’ve written or products you just launched and #jobs to… well, I think you can figure that one out. Trip specific channels are where you can keep up on inside jokes with the only people who would get it because they were there and #general is where you can post pics of everyone you’ve met up with around the world. And let me tell ya, it’s more active than week three of Chris Soules’ season week. He kissed SEVEN women that episode. Last Bachelor reference. Pinky promise.
I’ll leave you with this post made a couple weeks ago in #General. If you’ve ever been apart from your family over the holidays due to cost, circumstance, or even by choice, you can see how invaluable this type of open invitation is and how we really do mean HP is a family.
Come join the family.
