THE PENNY PUB
Am I Truly Who They Say I Am?
I lived in disbelief of what they saw in me
The program facilitator pulled out slips of paper from the hat and read out the names written there. “Judy. Judy. Judy…” Her gaze found me across the room each time she spoke my name. I was in disbelief.
We were at the halfway mark of a month-long self-development retreat. I let twenty-five people see me in ways I hadn’t dared to show in my regular life — not with my husband, my mother, my kids, or friends. They saw the me under the labels I had mistook as me.
We had spent the afternoon working on the Blind Spot quadrant of the Johari Window Model meant to reveal information about ourselves that others saw in us but that we were unaware of.
The question put to the participants was: Who in the group is most courageous? The majority of the voting slips had my name on them.
Never in my life had I thought of myself as courageous. Stupid, yes. Reckless, absolutely, but brave? C’mon!
For whatever reason, these people saw courage in me. Could I lay down my disbelief for a hot second and let myself believe their perception?
When I made the unprecedented decision to leave my family to participate in this program, I had promised…
