TRUTH
My first job was in marketing and I was privileged to have a marketing director who supported my love of writing. At this time, I was young, scared, and doubted myself and she could tell. One day, we talked for a couple hours in her office and as we were wrapping up she asked me, “What are you afraid of? Why can’t you do what you want to do?”
Surprised by what she was asking of me, with a low voice and looking away from her not trying to make eye-contact I said, “Because I don’t know how. I’m scared.”
With a slight smile she looked at me with her bright blue eyes and leaned forward. She touched my shoulder and I felt a sense of real affection and care from her. I felt my eyes start to water but I did my best to keep my professional composure. We just sat there in the comfortable silence until she finally said to me, “It’s OK to be scared and not know what’s going to happen. Martin Luther King didn’t know what the civil rights movement was going to look like - I bet he was scared…”
IN GRATITUDE,
-Duane
