This Week I Learned

So, I really like to talk into a mic for an hour. I already knew this from teaching fitness, but it turns out I like it even when the people I'm addressing aren't in perpetual motion. I like it when I have something to say. I like walking to the middle of the room, up and down the aisles, holding their attention. Stopping until they listen. Listening until they respond. Using the energy of the room to move us all forward. My audience's feedback forms from the 3-day conference that most warmed my heart said things like, "Inspiring....almost a motivational speaker." Who knew? Who knew I wanted to be a motivational speaker? But I do. I'll add this to the list of things I want. I've been building a list of things I want to do. Write a book, present more often, advocate for the good culture at my workplace.

I've also been learning a lot about authority. I have a life coach (I really do! Amazing, amazing job perk) who gives a talk on authority called, "How Your Inner Teenager is Alive and Well in the Workplace." I've been paying a lot of attention that inner teenager lately. My life coach wants to know how people learned to relate to authority, and to what extent that defines us now: as teenagers, did we try to please authority figures? Did we rebel openly? Did we appear to obey but were secretly rebellious, or appeared rebellious but were secretly obedient? Anyone who knows me know what category I fall into. But just as interesting is the category other people fall into. People I admire, people I work with, and people I love. If you listen hard enough, or maybe, stop listening and just be receptive, you can learn who that teenager is.

Last weekend my inner teenager, and the inner teenager of my husband, kicked around Western Mass for a day. Fell asleep in a park, ate sugary foods, drank PBR, visited my old college and gawked at all the actual teenagers, who live so fiestily and work to define themselves so ardently. We went up to the library and pulled my Div III off the shelves. "Hyperreality Bites: The Lost Point of Reference in America." The library featured racks of zines. The posters and magazines and "artifacts" of the culture there were so energizing and sweet and passionate at the same time. Everything seemed to be about being as honest as possible. And bucking authority, of course.