Showing Up Is The Start of the Work

Well, I'm not a champion by any means, but I'm still showing up, I'm still learning, and I'm still looking for those sneaky places in my life, my brain, my words, my actions where racism is embedded. It's scary to face those things and to know that I might screw up, but we are worth this kind of work. So I'll make mistakes, and I will own them, and then I'll come back and keep learning. I have seen so many other vanish in this work, and it reminds me that I can't take the road of complacency. While traveling last week a colleague asked my coworker "but where are you from originally?" It felt like the air got sucked out of the room around us. He answered with confidence and grace, and I felt like a complete coward. He doesn't need me to be his hero, but I absolutely failed in standing tall in that moment, and I have to face that part of myself to become something better.