Dooley Noted: 2/21/2015
I travel nearly every weekend these days.
I run on high octane during my week and when I’m in seminar all weekend.
I take my catharsis where I can get it.
It’s usually in the TSA line.
I’m discouraged from eating, drinking, speaking, writing, educating, or strength training.
So, I breathe and process my week.
Occasionally, I’m interrupted.
It happened yesterday, on my way to Toronto.
Two females were behind me, discussing an employee with whom they were unhappy.
Lady 1: “Does she not know who I am?”
I returned to my breathing drills.
Lady 2: “Who does she think she is?”
This phrase could not be ignored. It shuttled me back to senior year of high school.
I was editor of my high school newspaper and president of our theater club.
And with the popular world, I was a pariah.
I remember writing my final editorial, and I wrote exactly as I spoke. I was unyielding, honest, and forthright.
As a popular girl (whose name escapes me) read it a few rows from me, I heard her whisper:
“Who does she think she is?”
I knew who I was then.
I’m the same woman now.
I’m a woman with no need or desire to be popular.
I’m a woman who seeks justice and truth.
And I knew I’d never utter – nor write – words assuming I was better than anyone else.
I don’t wonder what happened to Miss Popular.
Her doppelgänger was behind me in the TSA line.
These girls just keep showing up.
High school was preparing me for them.
The women in the TSA line were yielding the power they owned, much like the high school girl.
They assumed someone couldn’t have a voice under their power.
They assumed respect was not reciprocal.
And just like in high school, I don’t want to be anything like them.
In fact, I use their attitudes as models to which I create an opposite force of nature.
I will work to empower those who feel deflated.
I will work to empower those who know that we achieve more by building up others, rather than breaking them down.
I will do the unpopular, if it’s necessary to deliver truth and help.
And if I find myself yielding power, it will only be used to help those around me become empowered.
You can yield your power to drag others down or to build them up.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley