The day has arrived, the journey has begun, and I am on my way to BlogHer ’12! I’ve made it from Windsor to Toronto, cleared US customs, eaten some breakfast, and am now enjoying a very welcome cup of Starbucks coffee (nice and strong!) with a couple of hours to kill before my flight to New York begins boarding.
Before I go too far, I must warn you that I’m not sure how much meaning or value I’ll be able to inject into this post, as I am currently surviving on somewhere around three hours of sleep and am not feeling particularly coherent! I went to bed fairly early last night and actually fell asleep right away, but woke up a couple of hours later and struggled to get any decent amount or quality of sleep after that… then was up at 3:15 a.m. to get ready to head to the airport. Hopefully I’ll be able to tap into some sort of second wind that will take me through to bedtime tonight without completely falling apart!
I called my parents last night before I left, and in the course of the conversation I shared my feelings of nervousness about going to this event all on my own, and my worries that my shyness would take over and I’d end up stuck in a corner all weekend with no one to talk to.
Mom said something that really struck me:
Remember that you have just as much right
as anyone else does to be there.
You know, that was exactly what I needed to hear! Thing is, along with my nervousness about this trip, I’ve been fretting lately about a particular individual who I am pretty sure doesn’t like me, and who doesn’t seem to want me around. Now I know that you can’t go through life expecting everyone to want to be your friend… and I know that there are a lot of wonderful people out there who DO like me… but it’s tough to handle when someone takes a dislike to you, and (in my case, at least) it makes you question whether perhaps you might be pushing yourself in where you’re not wanted, or overstepping some invisible line. But…
Remember that you have just as much right
as anyone else does to be there.
So I’m going to take that advice to heart in all sorts of situations – the conference this weekend, events that happen to include the person who doesn’t seem to like me, times when I start to feel shy or lacking in self-confidence.
Thanks, Mom!
