1996. 2nd semester. My 1st year of college.
7 am on a Saturday morning and my dorm phone rings. It could only be one caller – the sole source of every Saturday sunrise call…my mom.
“Shannon, your grades arrived in the mail. You went from a 3.7 to a 3.4 GPA. Your scholarship requires you to maintain a 3.5. Why did your grades drop?”
Tears welled in my eyes and fell softly down my face as I told my mom the truth.
My boyfriend was a starting lineman at a D1 school. He got caught up in athlete life, began cheating on me, and had gotten some girl pregnant. I learned of the whole debacle on Valentine’s Day.
I was going to class and struggling to keep up with reading and assignments while drowning my sorrows in a daily musical cocktail of Phyllis Hyman, Sade, Faith Evans, and Mary J. Blige.
“…and after all, Mom… a 3.4 is still a great freshman grade point average”
I sniffed at the end of my emotional outpour as my mom sat quietly on the phone. After a few minutes, she spoke: “A 3.4 is good – but last semester you had a 3.7 and your full-ride scholarship requires a 3.5. You cannot change what he did. You have to decide what you are going to do”.
I have two nieces turning 18, graduating high school in a few weeks, and preparing for their next. In the course of discussing their upcoming next, I reminded my mom of this pivotal phone call during my 1st year of college.
She remembered not liking that particular boyfriend and she remembered that report card and my grades declining… but she didn’t remember the “Return to Yourself and Choose You” pep talk from that fateful Saturday call.
Some of our most impactful decision points happen after pain points.
Life hurts.
People injure.
Experiences wound.
Yet we still get to choose – will this derail me or propel me?
That conversation was a lifeline.
It was the interruption and catalytic care that helped me get up out of the grave-like space my heart was in.
Rockstar Woman Soar Sessions — are lifelines.
Rockstars need catalytic community care and healing spaces.
Rockstars need spaces that ignite fresh thinking, help them recover from the invisible price tags of life + leadership, and safe haven with fellow high performers ready to help you get up out of the grave!
Excelling and performing at a high level – is not an exemption.
Life hurts.
Mistakes get made.
Human encounters injure.
Leadership demands and pain points leave scars.
GOOD NEWS: The beauty is often in our ashes.
xoxo
Shan
