Hello High Heelers
Natalie shared the funniest story with us in the coffee area this week. She told us about her most embarrassing moment. And hopefully she won’t fire me for sharing it with the whole world. Here goes nothing... First up, Natalie loves to go to gym (and if she hates it – she disguises the hate well!) So, at 17, when she first started gyming, she used to go to the high impact, ‘only-go-if-you’re-a-pro-and-have-buns-of-steel’ step class (you know the one you go to by mistake once and only once!)
Being Natalie, she used to stand at the front of the class, because, well... she likes to lead from the front! On one particular evening, she noticed that the fancy-footed male fossil behind her was grinning a little too much as she was bending and bouncing. She ignored him to begin with and kept throwing her energy into her manoeuvres. The more she kicked the wider she saw his smile stretch, behind her. Half an hour into the class, a woman tapped her on the shoulder and mentioned that she ought to go to the ladies. But Natalie (again, being Natalie) refused to leave. She studied her reflection in mirrors only to notice, in horror, that she had a hole in the back of her hotpants that was the size of a side plate (in a very precarious position – no explanation necessary). And to make matters worse, she wasn’t wearing any knickers!
In that situation I would have died of embarrassment and would have run out of the class and cancelled my gym contract (I would have even considered emigrating). Want to know what Natalie did? Of course you do! She tied her jersey around her waist and finished the class in front of all the people who had been exposed to her private ass-ets. You see. Natalie knows how to finish things. No matter what. And we can all learn from that. How often do you start a project, a painting, a relationship, a routine and then give up when it gets tough? I know I do all the time.
I changed high schools constantly because I never felt settled. I changed degrees and direction at varsity every few months because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my life. I quit gym, ballet, modern dancing and swimming. I have a half-painted picture of a tiger-lily in my spare room that has the potential to be my version of a masterpiece.
The only thing that has ever made complete sense to me is writing. I finished my first book, three years ago (I actually FINISHED it!). Then I sent it out to some publishers and miraculously found one in the first go! A publisher in Oxford in the UK was willing to publish and market MY book. I was ecstatic. But when I got the contract I felt uneasy. I suddenly needed to rewrite the ending again. It didn’t feel ‘good enough’ yet. So I cancelled the contract. I rewrote the ending (5 times – really!) and then I resent my manuscript out – just when the recession hit and publishing was going through a major slump. So here I sit, three years later, with an unpublished book, and an unfinished dream.
We need to take things through to the finish. Be it a gym class that you need to push through, a proposal that seems never-ending, a talent that you’ve left unfulfilled, or your greatest dream. This is a lesson that I have just begun learning. Will you step up to the student desk with me?
Right High Heelers, I have finished this blog post. I hope that you find meaning in it and that you apply yourselves to finishing first in your personal tests. We all can do it. We are all finishers.
Cheers,
Jo
Natalie shared the funniest story with us in the coffee area this week. She told us about her most embarrassing moment. And hopefully she won’t fire me for sharing it with the whole world. Here goes nothing... First up, Natalie loves to go to gym (and if she hates it – she disguises the hate well!) So, at 17, when she first started gyming, she used to go to the high impact, ‘only-go-if-you’re-a-pro-and-have-buns-of-steel’ step class (you know the one you go to by mistake once and only once!)
Being Natalie, she used to stand at the front of the class, because, well... she likes to lead from the front! On one particular evening, she noticed that the fancy-footed male fossil behind her was grinning a little too much as she was bending and bouncing. She ignored him to begin with and kept throwing her energy into her manoeuvres. The more she kicked the wider she saw his smile stretch, behind her. Half an hour into the class, a woman tapped her on the shoulder and mentioned that she ought to go to the ladies. But Natalie (again, being Natalie) refused to leave. She studied her reflection in mirrors only to notice, in horror, that she had a hole in the back of her hotpants that was the size of a side plate (in a very precarious position – no explanation necessary). And to make matters worse, she wasn’t wearing any knickers!
In that situation I would have died of embarrassment and would have run out of the class and cancelled my gym contract (I would have even considered emigrating). Want to know what Natalie did? Of course you do! She tied her jersey around her waist and finished the class in front of all the people who had been exposed to her private ass-ets. You see. Natalie knows how to finish things. No matter what. And we can all learn from that. How often do you start a project, a painting, a relationship, a routine and then give up when it gets tough? I know I do all the time.
I changed high schools constantly because I never felt settled. I changed degrees and direction at varsity every few months because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my life. I quit gym, ballet, modern dancing and swimming. I have a half-painted picture of a tiger-lily in my spare room that has the potential to be my version of a masterpiece.
The only thing that has ever made complete sense to me is writing. I finished my first book, three years ago (I actually FINISHED it!). Then I sent it out to some publishers and miraculously found one in the first go! A publisher in Oxford in the UK was willing to publish and market MY book. I was ecstatic. But when I got the contract I felt uneasy. I suddenly needed to rewrite the ending again. It didn’t feel ‘good enough’ yet. So I cancelled the contract. I rewrote the ending (5 times – really!) and then I resent my manuscript out – just when the recession hit and publishing was going through a major slump. So here I sit, three years later, with an unpublished book, and an unfinished dream.
We need to take things through to the finish. Be it a gym class that you need to push through, a proposal that seems never-ending, a talent that you’ve left unfulfilled, or your greatest dream. This is a lesson that I have just begun learning. Will you step up to the student desk with me?
Right High Heelers, I have finished this blog post. I hope that you find meaning in it and that you apply yourselves to finishing first in your personal tests. We all can do it. We are all finishers.
Cheers,
Jo
No comments:
Post a Comment