I want to take a moment to talk about the importance of support. This has been a topic heavy on my mind lately for many reasons, but I'm going to try to condense my thoughts... no promises (although this might be a shorter blog entry than my usual ones, so count your blessings).
I have been blessed to not only have an insurmountable level of support, but the ability to recognize it – especially over the past couple years. I have wild dreams, I have goals that none of my immediately family or friends have achieved, thus rendering me “alone” on the journey of plans that will impact the span of almost a decade. I often feel like talking about my goals or dreams is a pointless task – My mind says, “just get there and then talk about it after.” Part of that is because I fear that I will fail and prove that little voice inside my head right. Other parts of me are (eeks transparency moment) scared that I won’t be good enough to achieve said goals or dreams, or that I will get there and be terrible at what I’m setting out to do. I’m currently walking this leg of the journey with 20 other people who at least understand this portion of the relay, and that’s been a tremendous support that I’ve heavily relied upon. But what happens after spring of 2021? I can guarantee one thing, only because I’ve seen it to be true thus far without waver: I’ll have support.
Part of this overarching thought on support came about because I watched someone incredibly close to me pursue her dreams of sharing her crafting talents with others. I watched this same person who mustered the courage to walk into the journey of making her dream a reality on the pseudo-support of people she called friends. The same friends happened to be on a similar journey and were full of “encouragement.” However, once this individual took her first step, the friends tried to push her off the path making claims that she was stepping into their space. This pseudo-support made me think of the level of authentic support I receive from the 20 people I see 3-4 nights a week. We all get off work, take time away from loved ones, and go to class. We’ve all stepped into this similar journey of making a dream or goal a reality… instead of getting angry and trying to push each other out of the way, we’ve lifted each other up to support each other and share ideas. We’re all on similar journeys, but nobody is threatened by the other because we all want to see success. When we all support each other and cheer each other on, the whole group succeeds. Outside of that group I have individuals who believe in me, believe in my wild and crazy goals – sometimes even more than myself. They don’t feel like I’m impeding on their ability to succeed either, but instead see our friendships, relationships, etc. as successful because we believe in and value mutual support.
It makes me think back to junior high, when we had a trust building exercise where there were two groups and each group had to hold boards to make a bridge for the one teammate to walk across. The goal was for that person to get from one side of the room to the other, which required each first pair of board holders to act quickly to get to the front of the line to keep the board bridge moving forward so the person walking across could continuously move forward without stopping because the first group to get their bridge-walking teammate to the other side of the room won. Pseudo-support is the first pair of people holding the board so you can step onto the bridge, then they never move forward to support your journey, or they do move forward, but they don’t hold the board tight enough or straight enough and cause you to fall because of the barriers they created. Authentic support is when you keep moving forward with the person on their journey, because when you all reach the end goal, you all win.
I can only hope that I am as supportive as 1) I think I am, and 2) as needed, because I have been incredibly blessed by the authentic support not only from those I look up to, but those who hold the boards. I appreciate every single person who has put forth effort to encourage my dreams whole-heartedly.
