Try Something New
Jennifer Christman's column from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 5, 2006
When was the last time you tried something new?
And I don’t mean a dish at a restaurant or a lip color at a cosmetics counter.
I mean when was the last time you went out and actually did something different - attempted a new hobby, engaged in a fresh, fun activity or accomplished something you always wanted to do?
When was it? Can you even remember?
Me neither. A lot of us can’t. We are usually too busy toiling away at what we must do that we don’t dare permit ourselves to even think about, let alone try, something we desire to do.
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas knew that about women. And she wanted to change it. A do-er kind of dame who did it all, from kayaking and gardening to scuba diving, Grandcolas quit her job to write an instructional and inspirational book for women about realizing their dreams, whether they be creative (getting published, making a film), cash-oriented (expanding your money, giving your money away) or just crazy (walking on fire).
But she never had the chance to realize her own dream.
Grandcolas, a passenger aboard United Flight 93, died on Sept. 11, 2001, before she finished the manual. Determined that her idea would not die with her, her sisters, Vaughn Lohec and Dara Near, completed her book. You Can Do It! was published in May 2005 (Chronicle Books, www. chroniclebooks.com, $24.95).
I recently received a review copy of the nearly 500-page book in which female mentors share helpful how-to expertise about taking up 60 activities - flying a plane, painting, acting, beating the boys at pool, tracing family roots, training for a triathlon, etc. And I found it stirring even before I knew the author’s story.
Fashioned like a mature Girl Scouts manual, the book calls itself a “Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls” and comes complete with proud, self-congratulatory accomplishment stickers one can paste anywhere, from on a journal page to a refrigerator or maybe even a sash. (The book doesn’t come with one, but hey, you can do it! Just follow the chapters on sewing and looking sharp and make one!)
The book really got me thinking about some things I might like to try. Will I earn all the merit badges - the ones for learning another instrument, starting to surf or going sky diving? Probably not. For now I’m focusing on the first badge, the easiest and yet the hardest of them all - daring to dream. It’s a good one for all of us to strive for as we remember lives lost to Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.
What do we really want to be doing? What have we always wanted to learn? Is there something we’ve been missing out on? What would give us a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment? What could give additional meaning to our lives?
We can do it.
We must do it.
You can send e-mail to: jchristman@arkansasonline.com
What’s in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman ’hood
When was the last time you tried something new?
And I don’t mean a dish at a restaurant or a lip color at a cosmetics counter.
I mean when was the last time you went out and actually did something different - attempted a new hobby, engaged in a fresh, fun activity or accomplished something you always wanted to do?
When was it? Can you even remember?
Me neither. A lot of us can’t. We are usually too busy toiling away at what we must do that we don’t dare permit ourselves to even think about, let alone try, something we desire to do.
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas knew that about women. And she wanted to change it. A do-er kind of dame who did it all, from kayaking and gardening to scuba diving, Grandcolas quit her job to write an instructional and inspirational book for women about realizing their dreams, whether they be creative (getting published, making a film), cash-oriented (expanding your money, giving your money away) or just crazy (walking on fire).
But she never had the chance to realize her own dream.
Grandcolas, a passenger aboard United Flight 93, died on Sept. 11, 2001, before she finished the manual. Determined that her idea would not die with her, her sisters, Vaughn Lohec and Dara Near, completed her book. You Can Do It! was published in May 2005 (Chronicle Books, www. chroniclebooks.com, $24.95).
I recently received a review copy of the nearly 500-page book in which female mentors share helpful how-to expertise about taking up 60 activities - flying a plane, painting, acting, beating the boys at pool, tracing family roots, training for a triathlon, etc. And I found it stirring even before I knew the author’s story.
Fashioned like a mature Girl Scouts manual, the book calls itself a “Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls” and comes complete with proud, self-congratulatory accomplishment stickers one can paste anywhere, from on a journal page to a refrigerator or maybe even a sash. (The book doesn’t come with one, but hey, you can do it! Just follow the chapters on sewing and looking sharp and make one!)
The book really got me thinking about some things I might like to try. Will I earn all the merit badges - the ones for learning another instrument, starting to surf or going sky diving? Probably not. For now I’m focusing on the first badge, the easiest and yet the hardest of them all - daring to dream. It’s a good one for all of us to strive for as we remember lives lost to Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.
What do we really want to be doing? What have we always wanted to learn? Is there something we’ve been missing out on? What would give us a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment? What could give additional meaning to our lives?
We can do it.
We must do it.
You can send e-mail to: jchristman@arkansasonline.com
What’s in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman ’hood