Though I have been told boldness is my middle name, and I nailed Acting 101 required in the Scene Design Program, I never imagined I would become a speaker.
ME? NO WAY! Not even on my radar.
But sometimes life takes us to places where what we have learned and our ways of telling these things are discovered and the next thing we know we're at a podium standing on a chair in front of a bunch of people getting inspired by OUR journey. And laughing too. Then MORE want to hear us, and BAM, we've suddenly become a speaker!💥
Well, something like this anyway.😂
My dear mentor friend Nora I first blogged about in, "Adelaide Goes To Prison," where Nora who also never thought SHE would become a speaker in demand too had been asked by The Women's Prison Warden to come speak.
Since Nora didn't drive she asked him if she could bring her friend because, "Warden, she too has a powerful story to share."
Then Nora called me asking if I would drive her, which I was happy to do.
And then...AND THEN...
"Adelaide, I uh, told the Warden you also had a very powerful story to inspire the women with."
"You WHAT?!!"
"You'll be speaking too."
"But I'm NOT A SPEAKER!"
"You ARE far more than you think by the way people respond to just meeting you...your courage, your humor and charm...and the crazy way you dress."
"It isn't...THAT crazy...IS it?!!"
"It's unique and don't you ever change it! I'm brand new at this speaking thing too. Look my dear, we both have these stories everyone keeps begging us to tell. We can do this. YOU can do this. Folks are drawn to you!"
"No shit. I stand out."
"Yes, but I see them being inspired by you. Or laughing like crazy at your funny stories! My goodness child, you're only twenty-three years old and here I am almost, uh...forty-nine..."
"Nora, you're fifty-six!"
"That's to be kept between US, my dear!"
"We need to talk about this age thing you ha..."
"As I was SAYING...you already have lots more wisdom and experience and rising above shit than most do at ninety. Folks WANT to hear you. Folks NEED to hear you. Folks adore you."
"As they need to hear you too, Nora. Okay, I get it! We can do this. I hope. By the way, uh...since this IS a maximum security prison we're speaking at, they can't lock us up if the inmates don't like us, can they?"😂
So off to prison Nora and I went.
The women, guards, and Warden absolutely loved us. We were asked to come back many times. The Warden, guards, and most of all, the women, said we reached them in ways no one else ever did before.
I think one of my favorite African American writers, Zora Neale Hurston says it best, "You have to go there to know there." Meaning you have had to walk through it to be able to inspire. That we weren't talking "at" them with just words, but "to" them as survivors like they could be too.
Afterwards the Warden told his wife about us. She had us come speak to her Women's Group, then those women invited us to come to their groups, and it took off from there. However, I only took on speaking engagements aside from my work as a Scene Designer.
Not always did we speak together, being asked to each speak at other groups or churches. Through the years
I have often been asked to speak at doctors groups. These would involve question answer sessions, like how when I was nearly paralyzed permanently with only movement to my toes, did I do it focusing so hard until more movement happened. Other sessions were all about dwarfism and how to relate to us best ("Well, for one thing, don't talk DOWN to a Little Person...talk TO them").
Becoming a speaker definitely was not something I set out to do. Yet sometimes in life when we grab onto treasures in our own lives of survival and learning, we may just be meant to inspire others too if we can with how we got there ourselves.
The very creation of this blog is because I have been asked many times through the years to please put in writing what I was speaking about for not only my listeners to keep, but so more may some day be blessed too.
It is my hope you are.🐎😃🐎💫
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