Last week I stepped out of my comfort zone. Like way out of my comfort zone. And it was scary. But amazing things happened. Let me explain.
I attended a 3 day Women of Winter (WOW) ski camp in Squaw Valley, CA. I had never skied in this area. I was panicked everyone's skiing ability would far surpass mine. I had never done anything like this at all. And I knew no one. Not a soul.
On the first evening, I walked into a room for our orientation and texted my husband "I hate this. I'm in a room of 50 women and I know no one. Ugh." Yes, that is the actual text and it was actually 70 women, not 50. And many of those women already knew each other making me feel even more uncomfortable and sure that I wouldn't fit in. I was so thankful I had my phone to make it look like I was really busy as I texted my husband in a panic.
And I sat myself down at a table and said hello to another woman also sitting at the table. Turns out she didn't know anyone either. So we instantly bonded over being uncomfortable. She was also nervous about doing the ski camp. So we bonded over that, too. I'm not going to lie, the glass of wine I was served did help, but it turns out my fears weren't at all unique to me. It's pretty common in situations like this one. And, women are awesome. And friendly. And a smile goes a long way to making others feel better.
I will be sharing much more about my time in Squaw Valley but I wanted to share that while scary, stepping out of your comfort zone is one of the best things I think we can do as women. As scared as I was at the start of these 3 days where I knew no one, on the last evening I was teary-eyed to say goodbye to the new friends I had made. In 72 hours I had made friends that I was sad to leave. That's remarkable to me.
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What I want to share with all of you is that if there's something you want to do, don't let your fear of not knowing anyone stop you. Don't let your fear of not fitting in stop you. Don't let your fear of being uncomfortable stop you. What happens on the other side of that fear can be truly magical and you owe it to yourself to discover it.
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