I Met Someone
It wasn’t the way that I expected.
It never is.
I had no idea how it even happened, but when I looked back, I was gone.
***
“He doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” I’ve never felt truer words in my entire life.
I was named the lead event planner for a company-wide celebration less than four months into my first job after college. I know what you’re thinking…and yes, I felt grossly under-qualified and had several days where I psyched myself out so badly that I considered quitting.
I never thought I could pull it off. I was too new, too much of a people-pleaser, too anxious in chaos.
But there I was on November 2nd, speaking in front of a room with more people than the total population of my high school, after successfully executing the biggest event in company history. And for the first time this year, I was proud of myself and the woman I was becoming.
***
An ex-Marine told me about a training that everyone goes through in recon school, where you are forced to hold your breath underwater until you black out.
“We do it so we learn our body’s physical limits – so when we’re in combat, and we’re tired or hungry or lonely or hurt, we know we can keep going. You never know how strong you are if you allow yourself to quit before you’re at that limit.”
I remember thinking this was ass-backwards, but also something I wanted to try someday. And while I didn’t submerge myself in six feet of water, I cannonballed into the deep end at work and held my breath, waiting to see where my limit was.
***
I was intimidated of corporate America when I first started my career, and I didn’t know if I would have the strength to steel myself when others tried to dislodge my confidence. Surviving this event taught me that I have a lot of fight in me that I never knew I had.
And as for the mysterious person I met along the way?
It wasn’t the hottest guy in the office or our new CEO, and it wasn’t a local celebrity (sorry y’all…no Beyoncé or JJ Watt sightings here).
The person that I met, and fell in love with, was myself.
