It all started with an idea. What if...?! What if I started a podcast where marginalized people could share their stories? What would that look like? Chuck and I sat around talking about the possibilities until the idea took root and became an actual project. It became my new job. I decided to name the podcast Gramercy. I had just come across this ancient word and loved it. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to use it somehow. The word means: Great Thanks. Isn't that incredible! There's a word that fits how I've lived my whole life - full to the brim of thankfulness. Any post on this blog will attest to that. But the question was, how does this title translate to a podcast?
Well, hold your horses, before we can do anything else we have to come up with a logo or it's not official. At least not in our family. You know the great importance logos hold in our life. Once we nailed down the logo, the rest seemed to just flow. I wanted it to be happy - thus the yellow. I wanted it to just be a "g", not the entire word. I wanted it to be lowercase and a little bit typewriter-ish. And this is what the world's best designer came up with. I know, I'm lucky. Chuck is the best at what he does and he nailed it.
Then he told me I needed to have a website - or at least a landing page, just for now. Again, we brainstormed together. I wrote all the copy, he created the site that put my heart out into the world. You can listen to the trailer here.
Truth be told, I'm scared out of my mind. This is the most vulnerable I've ever been. But despite my fear, my love and motivation to stand up for and be an ally with the marginalized of our society is greater. I can't not do this.
This is the direct result of starting another new venture in life - becoming an ESL teacher. I had no clue how to do that when I started either. Life is like that, sometimes you just have to try and see what happens. Becoming an ESL teacher opened my world and mind and heart up to a whole swath of society I knew nothing about. Now I don't ever want to leave these people. They've made me a better person for having known them. I want to share their stories in an effort to the fight the fear mongering that many would have you believe instead.
The quote that I have taped to my wall helping me make it through this new transition is by Rainer Maria Rilke, "Let everything happen to you, the beauty and the terror, just keep going, no feeling is final." It's beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.
Carpe Diem
