My father was my hero. A modest, gentle man, he took whatever life dished out with grace. On the occasions when I’m feeling angry about how life is treating me, I try to channel his spirit. He had a smile and a thank you, almost literally until his last breath. Who are your everyday heroes?
Illustration by Lisa Congdon
That is just lovely about your father. I don’t really have a hero to be honest…I’m still looking.
I’m lucky to have known him. Really lucky.
You’re one of my heroes, Wendy! I just love this blog, its helped me to be so much more self-accepting.
I love hearing that Meghan. Thank you.
Mine is an administrative assistant at the UCLA clinic where I work. She has incredible presence, self contained without loosing her natural warmth. She deals with people coming for psychotherapy and psychiatry appointments. She’s calm, fair and treats everyone with respect.She’s intuitive and thinks outside the box with exceptional grace. You can only imagine the cast of characters she copes with, many with financial concerns. I’ve never seen her loose it. I try to validate her any chance I get. And, I learn from her every time we work together.
I like thinking about her quiet impact. It sounds like she makes a real difference in people’s lives, even though they might not know it.
Exactly, Wendy.
My everyday hero is my colleague Kate. She and I do similar work but she would technically be my boss if she worked in my office. We send silly emails back and forth all day, she’s supportive when I need to vent, I hope I’m supportive when she needs to vent, she’s almost always game for happy hour at this dark, twisty hipster joint we love and she’s just so cool. I was having a serious work issue today and she totally let me let loose about it. But I have another one, a hero just for today.
So um, I met a man who’s interested in being my friend with benefits. Nothing has happened yet since we both agree just jumping in the sack with a stranger is both crazy and dangerous. We’re both thinking something like an exclusive FWB but not quite a relationship but not ruling that out down the road either. I know, it’s complicated but it makes sense right now.
Anyway, I have a work issue going on and the poor guy sent me some flirty “good morning sexy” or whatever email and I just vented about how much boss was out to get me and I’m not being paranoid, no really, she doesn’t like me. He responds in a sort of awkward, vanilla way and neither of us write for hours. At the end of the day I apologize to him for venting my work stuff to him because hey, he’s auditioning to be my FWB, not my boyfriend, and besides, we’re not at the “hang in there, keep your up head” phase yet. Well he writes me back: “Hang in there, keep your head up :)” Then he told me I was overthinking it (always a possibility) and that I should have something sweet because he knows I stress-eat candy. So today, he’s my hero. 🙂
What a fun story, Latarsha. You go girl.
🙂
He and I are going on our first date tomorrow night!
Woo-hoo!!