I’m so late getting out a new post, and my reasons are so typical and inexcusable for anyone who cares enough about something. I won’t bore you with them. However, I want to share some things that have been going on in my life with you. I’m going to have to ask you to forgive my rambling and jumping around this time. I promise, there is a point.
I sent a very long, honest and heartfelt message to a family member I was having difficulty with two nights ago, and I knew it was either going to get through or detonate everything. To be clear, this was more than just a minor thing. It was important to me and made me very afraid.
I should mention I am now just six days away from flying to Reno and ending up on a 165-mile loop that I plan to hike in 10 to 11 days with a 28-pound pack and three of the best people I know. I insert this here for two reasons. One is to help you understand the demand of my day-to-day in preparation as well as the anxiety I’m feeling. Also, I hope to have more to tell you about it soon. Cross your fingers I don’t die before I get to.
The last couple of weeks have been…weird. Amazing, maybe. The Universe has a funny way—in my life, at least—of sending out signals, making us miserable, then quickly elevating us. I was going through really tough family stuff, when all of a sudden, I learned I was featured in an article of a very well-known national publication for my industry. I work in construction and was solicited by our corporate office to answer some questions about data centers that have—by the luck of the draw, I suppose—become my forte. I responded as well I could, thought it was an internal deal, and went about my business.
About a week or so ago, my friend Tristan put me in contact with this amazing man who is going to design and screen print some Greater Ape t-shirts. They had recently met and when Tristan found out what he did, he thought I might be interested. As luck would have it, I had been scouting the internet for different t-shirt design companies and coming up unsatisfied up to that day. So, we emailed back and forth then spoke over the phone and it was just uncanny how in sync we were with our respective ideas for the design. He told me he had checked out the site and it was clear he was in tune with what I was reaching for in this work. It was so encouraging and affirming I could not help but feel inspired and excited. Stay tuned to see the finished product. Probably next month.
The day after I sent the heartfelt message to said family member I mentioned before, I received a text from them inviting me to an important family event. We texted and exchanged like nothing happened. My message broke through. It did not detonate. I was incredibly happy and oh, so grateful.
A few days ago, a customer of the firm I work for reached out and said they saw “my awesome article in ENR (Engineering News-Record).” Since I am now doing a data center job for said customer, I was intrigued and looked it up. Sure enough, parts of what I had communicated to my corporate office were in this highly read (in the construction industry) publication, along with my photo. Weird. Also kind of awesome. Honestly, y’all, I have been a writer my whole life and knew I wanted to be since third grade. Decades later, I am finally published outside of my own blog. It is, sadly, not exactly how I would have had it in print, but for this instance, it was no doubt edited for max characters and to maximize content. At any rate, it was cool. I felt proud. A day or so later, a friend who is far higher than me on the ladder at work asked me to help her come up with a code name for something she was working on within the company. She mentioned “moonshots,” which I was not familiar with so I called her to be sure I understood. Did this mean shooting for the moon? Going for something not done before? She confirmed, and I sent her some ideas. The very next day, I was in a lobby waiting to be seen, when I picked up a GQ magazine with a picture of Ryan Gosling on the front from November of last year. I flipped to the article about him and saw a stellar graphic with the word “moonshot” in vertical lettering. Weird. I took a picture of it and texted it to my friend immediately, with a message about how strange the world we live in is. She readily agreed. Fast-forward to today. I should explain the “moonshots” friend is a senior vice president at the company, so she’s no peon. This morning she sent me a text from the HMFIC (look it up, but it means the big boss) who tripped across the article while reading the aforementioned publication. He was “pleasantly surprised” to see me in the article. Wow. That is pretty awesome. I am visible. Later, I got a call from a friend who saw it. Then, while at work, the big cheese at our location—both, actually, as we just promoted someone else to that position and the previous cheese is moving on to greener pastures—came to my desk to tell me they got the text, saw the article, and are proud of me.
Well, damn. Things are pretty awesome. Just a few days ago, I was inconsolably tearful and feeling like a failure. Don’t get me wrong, shit is still hard. But, as Stephen King said in his book, On Writing, to be a good writer you have to tell the truth. I believe that. I try to practice that in everything, but most certainly in my writing. When you tell the truth, you might get into trouble. But usually, you get where you ought to be.
Create and be honest with it. Do and speak to what you love. The Universe is listening.
mandy@greaterape.com