Today we had almost 1,000 copies of our magazine delivered.
In our office, there are 1,000 magazines, hundreds of thumbs up clings, and a white board covered in a hundred sticky notes. There are half-empty coffee cups, overflowing garbage pails, and messy desks–the aftermath of our new publication coming to life. Amidst the wreckage, I met with our brand new part-time Events Editor, Maria Abreu, in our tiny office for the first time. I apologized for the mess and for the fact that my hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket. For those of you who don’t know, Maria is the brilliant Development Director for Maryland Hall. I tried to smooth my hair down but I had totally missed my hair appointment last month and between the hair and coffee cups… well let’s just say, it wasn’t my proudest moment.
In between my millions of apologies, Maria couldn’t have been more delightful. She said some pretty magical words but one comment stuck with me: “You are doing great things, and none of the other things really matter right now!” And while it’s hard right now to even use the word great in a sentence to describe my current condition, I appreciate the compliment nonetheless. Our Editor in Chief, Chelsea Harrison, sent me a quote that really resonated with me from Amy Poehler, “Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it.”
So many times I approve posts in our group from moms and young adults asking questions like, “When do you know it’s time to have a child?,” or “When do you know it’s time to change jobs?,” or, “I know I should apply to college but I’m not sure if I am ready.” The fact is that risk-taking is terrifying and exciting, but mostly terrifyingly, we will never know if we can achieve great things until we jump and take the risk. It may be ugly and dirty, and we may not feel ready, but wow, when we finally do things… that’s when we can reach our full potential and just quite possibly become great!
Marjorie Prime at Colonial Players