Here goes, my very first post….
Tonight I had the good fortune to spend some time with two amazing women. We had dinner then hit the movies, a treat that I thoroughly enjoy but rarely make the time to indulge in. We had decided to see the film, Hidden Figures, a phenomenal movie about the US space program in the 1960s and the amazing women, African American women that were essential to the success of that program.
The movie was well written, witty, historically sound, romantic, but most of all inspirational. One could not sit through the movie without being moved to action, or at least the desire for action. The specific action is as individual as every woman in the audience. For some I can imagine they might be inspired to pursue a new level of education as one of the characters in the movie did. Another viewer might be inspired to stand her ground and demand she be acknowledged for her actions, whatever they may be. Yet another might simply be moved to encourage other women to see the movie and plant the seed of action in their hearts and minds. Whatever it was, most leaving there made similar comments about being inspired.
For me, that inspiration is here, in this blog, at least in part. There are still many things I wish to do, some short term and some long, that will require action, but like so many I often allow life to interfere with that action. Not tonight. Tonight after leaving the theater, I knew that if I continued to put off this first post, hoping to find the perfect subject matter, the blog would never be written. We all have things in our lives that we’ve wanted to accomplish but that we put off and unfortunately some will never be done.
I’ve got a shoe-box, if you will, of conceived but not completed goals, dreams and desires left in different stages of infancy, but not this one. Tonight these amazing women; Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson brought me to tears but also ignited a fire to act. These women moved my mind and my soul, they faced huge obstacles that must have seemed insurmountable, and yet overcame them. Why would I allow the obstacle of my own mind to prevent me from doing what I am passionate about when these women were able to accomplish so much? I won’t.
This begins a new chapter for me, a new adventure, a new dream. Thanks to incredible women, the women in the movie and those I surround myself with regularly, I can act…and this blog is truly just the beginning.
I Rise ~ Andrea