I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.
I’m sure this is how I ended up being invited to attend the LIV event last fall in 2022. I was amazed to find out such an event for women has been happening for 25 years that I didn’t know about. I’m a women’s “event” junkie.
However, it was quickly evident this is a different type of women’s event. Although the others are fun and offer shopping, financial, food and health related booths/topics, this event offered topics that got to the heart of what is affecting us as women right now.
As like many others, the past few years have been rough. Although I had not had a personal experience with Covid, the world had changed. My job required me to be on-site all but the first two months during Covid, which turned out to be a good thing. The isolation of being home and not around my co-workers was the beginning of my struggles.
I’m in education, but in administration and not in a classroom. When returning to work my field required me to be a cheerleader, so to speak. I felt the need to continually be positive for those in the buildings with students that were facing new challenges and wearing thin much more quickly.
I didn’t mind this. I felt fortunate to be where I was. However, I didn’t realize the energy it was taking from me as well as some personal things going on in my life. I didn’t know it, but I was about to hit a wall in my life and LIV had been put in front of me at that time in my life to get me past that wall.
Right after LIV, I stopped working 10-14 hours days and stopped working on weekends. I had to make ME a priority. I returned to working normal 8-hour days and 5-day weeks, for the most part. It took me quite a while to convince myself that it was ok to not do everything myself and ask for help or just let some things go undone. I still must tell myself that sometimes.
Each session I attended at LIV, including the Keynote speakers, I felt were speaking directly to me. I heard over and over that day that it’s okay to not be okay, but I don’t have to stay there. I can CHOOSE to be where I want to be and how I want to be.
This is the biggest thing I took from the day. I CHOOSE how I respond to what happens to me and around me. I’m allowed to do what’s best for me, even if it upsets other people. I DESERVE to be HAPPY.
I am still a work in progress. I must work at this every day, but today is better than yesterday. And today is SO much better than where I was on the day that I attended the LIV event. I knew I wasn’t in a good place, but I’m a woman and we are supposed to be strong, so I wouldn’t admit that or ask for help…. until I attended LIV.
It was so much fun to laugh and smile that day. I don’t remember the last time I had done either with true happiness or silliness in my heart. On a very personal note, the end keynote speaker, Yakov Smirnoff, couldn’t have been a better fit for my heart. I have wanted to see him many times when I went to Branson, but always chose something else. Yakov was one of my dad’s favorite performers in Branson. At LIV, I was given the opportunity to see why my dad, who is no longer with us, enjoyed him so much. I was able to take a selfie with Yakov after his presentation, a memory that I will have forever.
I’m so thankful to the ladies that spend so much time and thought putting this one day together for the women of our community. It may be just a fun day with girlfriends for some (which is therapy in itself many times), but please know, you may just make the difference in one life beyond measure. Thank you!
