I’d like to tell you something about myself, something true. Something I love. I love people. I love them. I love how they are so very, very different, and yet so fundamentally the same.
As Gwen Stefani so eloquently puts it,
“Once in a while I sit back and think about the planet. Most of the time I trip on it… But the most amazing thing that I’ve seen in my time, are all the different people and all their different minds. And different ways. It would take a lifetime to explain. No one’s exactly the same. So many different people. So many different kinds.”
In case you have a secret love for Gwen as I do (or even a completely open infatuation for her and her music), here she is performing this song in California.
Gwen really proves my point just with her own eccentricities. She’s DIFFERENT. And yet, I assume she wants all the same things that each of us want: love, acceptance, success, hope. (See this and more fun pictures of Gwen here.)
Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, I realized that I know so many, many amazing people, each one ripe with beautiful successes. And each one often laden with trials and challenges. I want to make it my challenge to share a bit about some of these fabulous people, so maybe they can inspire you as much as they have inspired me. Because it helps to know that, though we’re all very different, we’re all the same at heart. It helps to know that others have gone through the same challenges that we ourselves are steeped in right this very moment. It helps to know that they’ve made it, and they’re happy. Right? Well, it helps me, at least. It also helps me to know that the world is beautiful because it is painted with all the colorfulness of the different kinds of people who live in it.
My person of the week is a dear friend of mine named Katie. Katie is the kind of person who is always helping those around her. She is also the kind of person who you want around when you are feeling mischievous—she will help you with your little plots. She and I spent several days together, talking over Wendy’s Frosty’s, planning our futures. And one time, we won a fish together at the carnival. We named him Ferdinand and he lived for a whole year, MUCH longer than any normal carnival goldfish should live.
The sad thing about Katie is that, despite all of her goodness, she didn’t always know how awesome she was. In fact, she went through some very dark times in her life when she thought she was worthless. Can you believe that? And in that place where she felt sorry for herself, she got into a relationship that was very unhealthy. She was miserable, and this guy she was with dragged her down, made her feel even worse. Love can be wonderful, can make you feel like you’re weightless, that you can do anything you set your heart upon. But when it makes you feel the opposite of this, when it holds you back and makes you weep, this is not love. Luckily, my dear friend Katie figured this out. She said, “I had a vision of who I wanted to be, and I wasn’t that person.” She had always seen herself as a doctor, helping others, but at this point she couldn’t even help herself. So she got away.
She started over, alone and afraid, but determined. She got herself a puppy (something I happen to know she had wanted for a long time), and enrolled in a new college. And she became successful. Not all at once, of course. It was hard. She said, “I struggled with learning to be who I am without a relationship. But I have learned not to keep all my eggs in one basket, and that the best way to have a healthy relationship is to just be two healthy people who decide to share a life… I [gave] myself a structure to fall back on so I have that to count on, even on the most stressful days.”
Now Katie is still imperfect (as we all are), but she works hard and she is successful. She is a junior in college, a psych major who is pre-med. She is studying for the MCAT, as well as planning her wedding that will take place this summer. She met a new guy, one who helps her reach her goals and dreams. And she is happy. She says that her favorite thing in life is “coming home to someone who loves me and my very favorite Chiweenie (Chiahuahua/Weiner Dog mix)!”
Though Katie went through some extremely painful things and times of severe loneliness, when I asked her what advice she would give to others, she ultimately had this to say: “Overall, my biggest change was when I decided that I was going to become the person I wanted to be. I had to step out of my comfort zone and into a very new environment in order to become an individual I could be happy with—even if that was all I had. But, once you can do that, it will never be all you have, and people will want to surround you. Everybody loves a confident, independent, self-sufficient, kind person. Be that.”
Oh, how I love my Katie! I hope that all of you can love her and learn from her as I have.
