“Hey world, this is who I am"

[You - II]

Challenging the status quo is not a job we are hired to do. It doesn’t come with a description and set of tasks that need to be accomplished daily.

We don’t even know we’re in the role all at once. It comes to us in pieces—fragmented experiences of discomfort, dis-ease, and dissatisfaction. Slowly, over time, it coalesces into something that resembles a reflection back to us of our true self. Even then, we’re not sure if it’s us because our true self is unfamiliar when we’ve been told our whole lives we are something else.

Early on we tell ourselves, “I think I feel/see/sense this.”
Then it’s, “I’m pretty sure it’s there.”
Then, “Geez, it is there.”
Finally, “Yeah, that’s me.”

For some this happens as early as 10 or 12 years old. For others, not until middle age.

Living as you really are, challenging the broken-yet-accepted way things are, insisting on a new normal, and enacting change . . . requires we must have a coming out. We cannot stop at “Yeah, that’s me.” We must continue on to, “Hey world, this is who I am.”

Because now we have an answer to the condescending question we often heard: “Who do you think you are?”