A Place of Honor

As we walked into the Kiva auditorium, the evening before our presentation with Candy Chang for the New Mexico Municipal League Key note address, I was overwhelmed by the size of the space,  the number of seats, the stage with risers and a small podium. The thought that I would be a that podium in 16 hours was surreal. The whole experience was surreal. We would be  on stage with an amazing woman who changed the world, including ours, with her “Before I die I want to…” Project.

As we walked down to the stage to practice our talks, we walked in front of the first row seats. Several were reserved.  When I saw the one with my name on it, right next to Candy Chang’s I was flooded with the reality that I was in a special place, a very real place, on I never imagined.  I was moved to tears as it was such an honor for me to be sitting with amazing woman that I greatly admired because she makes a difference in the world with everything she creates.

It was amazing to me to think that my journey to this place of honor started with an invitation, with my inviting my French friends to my school for a community celebration.  It was at that moment that I discovered my friend was bringing Candy to Albuquerque for an annual conference, a private conference that was then opened up to us. Inviting my friends was actually a stretch for me. I wasn’t sure that anyone would be interested in coming to my high school for an evening event. I was so wrong, a point which reinforced my confidence that sharing is the best thing we can do despite our feelings of insecurity or doubt.

My speaking out about our project with that invitation opened up new worlds for me and my students. Candy shared her ideas, we shared ours and we were brought together as a result, a beautiful result.