Be Uncomfortable. (DCA)

Last week, I was graced with the opportunity to talk to the interns at my office. There was no established topic, just a calendar invite. It read: “#UnderTheRadarMaria. 12pm. Large Conference Room.” That was all. I had initially agreed because I’m a “team player,” or whatever. Just kidding, I love my coworkers and I desperately wanted to drop some knowledge on these ‘terns.

I got in the room. Six people. SIX PEOPLE, for a whole hour–just me, and my thoughts. I typically joke with people that “I love attention,” (which is true) but the thing I love more is when an audience is truly engaged and listening. Guys, you could have heard a pin drop–not really, because our conference room is carpeted–but you get the idea.

I ranted and raved for about 35 minutes, all the while sweating pretty profusely, and occasionally swearing (sorry, Mom and Dad), telling the interns tidbits like “always carry a pen and paper, because y’all never know when some important shit is gonna happen that you’ll have to write down.” –>that’s pure gold, but I digress. I told them to explore DC, and to invest their time in one another, because they will never be in a situation quite like this again. Then, I pivoted to the crescendo of my lengthy-ass TED talk, be uncomfortable. Seriously, I told these peeps they should go out of their way to make themselves uncomfortable. When the phrase first came out, I could see a few blank stares, but two of my very sage coworkers, positioned in the back of the room, started giving me coy nods–and I knew I was on the right track.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Even saying that phrase is a bit uncomfortable. There’s too many syllables; you can feel yourself garbling the words as they tumble out, right? When you get to that uncomfortable place, that is where you learn the most about yourself, I explained. So, I asked (sort of told), these youngins to start putting themselves into situations that would make them deliberately uncomfortable. Ask people to go to coffee for informational interviews, go to happy hours and give your number to strangers, make eye contact with randos on the Metro. Little adjustments, small minutiae when it comes down to it, but those moments of discomfort can have enormous pay-offs.

Why did I pick this topic to hone in on, out of literally every other thing I could have talked about? Non-profits (I don’t know anything about those), how to make it in DC (I sure as shit don’t know anything about this), heck, I could have sat these kids down for an hour and talked about the impending bee crisis (it’s real and we should all be VERY WORRIED).

But no, this is the lesson I wanted them, if they learned anything, to take away: BE. UNCOMFORTABLE. Why? Well folks, you may have already figured where this was going, but it’s because getting uncomfortable has given me so fucking much. I basically owe my livelihood to one choice to get uncomfortable.

The example I used for the interns went something like this:

One morning, I woke up, got on my bike, rode my shoddy-ass bike down to Lincoln, and walked up to a large group of people standing in the pitch black. Some girl with beautiful hair yelled and asked what my name was. I managed to stammer out “Um, Maria” in about as bitchy a tone as I could manage, and a hundred people yelled back at me “MARIA!” AND THEN WE HUGGED, AND RAN, AND DID PUSH-UPS AND THEN I WAS BIKING HOME AND MY HEART WAS POUNDING BECAUSE I FELT fucking exhilarated. I felt physically and mentally and very emotionally uncomfortable a lot of the time in my early days at November Project, but that was what absolutely made me fall in love with it.

Pre-NP, I abhorred physical contact, like, would rarely hug my siblings. Now, give me those hipsallthewayinthisGDclose kind of hugs, from friends, from family, from strangers. Pre-NP, I liked to have a tight-knit crew, just a few people I kept close with. Now, I can go anywhere in the WORLD and have buddies. Pre-NP, I sure as hell would not have been able to give a talk to a group of interns, most of whom will eventually be my boss someday (kids are so smart now y’all), about why and how important it is to get uncomfortable.

I love November Project. I love it with my whole heart. The people, the culture, the sunrises, the fitness–and I never would have known any of that if I didn’t allow myself to be uncomfortable.

So go ahead, step outside your comfort zone, nothing fun ever happens in there any way.

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