The Birthday. The Social Media. The White Noise. And Beyond.

This past week I got to go home to Colorado to surprise my Dad for his birthday. It was perfect timing because he was flying into the Denver airport at the same time my flight was arriving. My flight arrived a little early and I was able to sit right by my Dad’s gate and wait for him to walk through. I was in a wheelchair so I was not at the usual eye level he was used to seeing me at. He also was looking at his phone and did not notice me until I called to him- at which point he was so close I could reach out and touch him. Seeing the joy on his face made me tear up immediately. My mom and I did good. It was so good to be home. Driving up that mountain always calms me down. I can feel my body let go as our car climbs over the mountain into my mountain town. If you’d like to see a video of the surprise, look at Lora Haimes’ facebook. …I was told it is posted there. I wouldn’t know. Social media is hard. 

Lots of exciting things I am working on right now! Maybe that is why my brain feels so fuzzy trying to write. I am a student again! (As if I ever wasn’t. But the kind with tests and textbooks). I am studying right now to become a personal trainer. And wow I forgot how to get my brain to study. I know I learned things from books at some point…. I took quizzes, did projects…. read textbooks. I’m pretty sure all of that happened. I’m just not sure how. HA. I’m waking my brain up. So that I can learn how to help others wake their bodies up!

I met some interesting people on my flight home yesterday. The female flight attendant was so kind and taller than me and drank kombucha. We were definitely soul sisters. #tallgirlsunite. There are very few tall women that I don’t fall in love with immediately. It’s a tribe. The teenage kid next to me was going out to New York with his dad for a spring break trip. I asked him where he was from and laughed to myself at his very familiar response. 

“I’m from a small mountain town, you probably haven’t heard of it.”

“What is it?”

“Evergreen.”

“I’m from Conifer.”

If you are from one of these towns, you will understand my delight. We are rivals! And this kid was at a ripe age to be right in the deep of the the high school rivalry. It was delightful for me to see his expression change now that he knew I was from Conifer-the enemy. I was also delighted to get to tell another mountain kid that New York was not actually that scary and yes, he should definitely see a Broadway show while he was here. (Why else would they be visiting NYC….?!).

I was told by both the teenage boy and the man sitting next to him (We had all become plane friends… you could say…) that “No one reads blogs anymore.”. Wow thanks for the support guys! They then talked all about instagram and how it’s the thing now. Yes I have heard that instagram is the thing now. While I do see the logic in this, I also have to say that I do not enjoy social media. I enjoy this blog. I enjoy creating my own story here that I can someday look back at or possibly share with others that it could help. But social media. I just. Do not. Get it. If you know me well this does not surprise you at all. This may surprise some of you… because I am a millennial. And aren’t millennials supposed to “get” social media? It honestly just feels tedious. And also just so confusing. Why why why do we have “stories’? On Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and who knows what else? Why do we need other people to see what we are doing all of the time? And why do we sit at home, looking at what other people are doing, wishing we could be doing things as cool as that? Seriously, why do we have “stories”? It makes no sense to me. Many friends have tried to re-frame this social media thing for me. And I have tried for myself. Look at this as a professional thing! It’s your chance to brand yourself- to share your work with the world. I’ve tried thinking about it as a place to actually connect with others- and a place to support others. I’ve tried thinking of it as a way to find out about other people in my field or connect with inspirational/educational content. None of this has really sparked a change in my avoidance of the social media at all costs. But I think I could find the good in it…if I make it a habit. I am going to challenge myself to post two things on instagram a week, and follow two new people that post inspiring things. So if I don’t…. You will all know. I’m also going to read at least two blog posts a week from other people… so that at least SOMEONE will be reading blogs. Suggestions for blogs to read are welcome :).

Advice to the young artists of the world: You will meet people all the time who won’t understand your profession. They won’t understand the sacrifice it takes. The dedication. The lulls in work. Many of them won’t even understand that it is a real career. This is WHITE NOISE. Don’t listen to the white noise. Pay no attention to it. This is easier said than done. The best I can say is that you don’t need other people to understand your path or your career. It’s not their path- so they don’t have the vision for it. I say these words now to remind myself as well. The white noise people pop up all the time and can throw you off with their noisy noisy comments. But it doesn’t matter. Because you know who you are. And you don’t need the noisy people to understand. 

I was thinking back to the half marathon I got to watch a couple weeks ago. It was so cool to see all the different bodies running. Truly all shapes and sizes. I loved that. I love that there is not a “running body-type”. And if you think there is- you are wrong! Get out there and join the running community and you will see. Watching a race is so inspiring. Seeing all the humans work so hard. With each person that ran past, I could see their story in their faces. I may not have known the specifics of what each person had gone through to get to this point- but I could see a lot of it- smiles, pain, joy, tears. It was the end of the race and the runners were fighting. One man ran by and a woman cheered for him, maybe his wife. His face lit up when he saw her. He blew her a kiss and then he ran even faster. It was the very end of the race. It was so cool to see the affect people can have on each other. To see one person give another person actual energy to push through to the end of the race. We are powerful and our connection to each other is POWERFUL. Go forth and encourage each other. You never know who you might push forward to finish their race.