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This past weekend I had the extreme pleasure of attending a 20 year reunion in Scottsdale with the women of my AOII Chapter Consultant team. In 1993-1994 we represented our International Headquarters and travelled to chapters on university campuses all across North America. Our visits included meeting with chapter officers, facilitating workshops, meeting with campus liaisons and reporting back to HQ on the overall status of the chapters.
If you can believe it, those reports were typed out on a typewriter. How things have changed in 20 years!
Although we come from different regions with different influences and now work in different careers and have different family dynamics, one thing remains the same – we are all bonded by a common experience.
We have the common experience of being Chapter Consultants which in itself is a pretty big bond with SO many stories and interesting situations. That year grew all of us on so many levels. Fortunately, our lovely boss Ann collected and put all of our letters to each other together so we could always remember the funny, sometimes scary and very often heartwarming experiences we each encountered.
But what was so evident this past weekend for me after 20 years was the common bond beyond being Chapter Consultants; even beyond our AOII Sisterhood. It was the common experience of being women.
Being selected to represent AOII as a Chapter Consultant was a huge honour. We were the “best and the brightest;” “the cream of the crop.” Most of us, who also served as Chapter Presidents could be labelled, still to this day as “achievers.” I could blog for weeks about all of the wonderful accomplishments this amazing group of women has achieved in the past 20 years and I cannot wait to witness the WINS of the future.
However, what really stood out to me, even amongst this top notch accomplished group of women was the reality of our common experience.
The reality is although we are all truly blessed with so much to be grateful for, each one of us is just trying to do our very best. We often feel like we are “failing” at some part of our lives. We question and doubt our abilities. We sometimes feel less than adequate. We have all had several bumps in the road. We are plagued with not feeling like “enough.” We are coming to an understanding that perfect doesn’t exist and starting to feel ok with that.
I will always cherish this weekend. Our four days together, our common experience as a team and as women created a safe space. A space where we could remove our achiever masks and be truly vulnerable. We laughed – A LOT! We cried – QUITE A BIT!
We connected in a meaningful and positive way!
Abby, Allison, Ann, Beth, Miss Beth, Jessica, Michelle, Tiffany, and Tracy – Thank you for being such a positive, supportive and inspirational group of women in my life! I love you all. #nicctforever