I’m Not Special

There are certain people you look at and you immediately know they have a little something going on. You know who I’m talking about, the ones you just can’t help but notice because they light up a room, know just the right way to answer a question, float effortlessly through life…it’s almost as if, they sparkle.

They are special.

And then there’s you and me.

I had no delusions about my being “special.” In fact, when Kathie Donovan asked me to speak at an event she was holding I replied telling her that I’m not special and I told her my story.

You see, I grew up in a poor family. In fact, this is the apartment my mom and I lived in after she and my dad split up in 1974.

Life was hard for my mom, raising me on her own, and when we eventually moved to Haliburton in 1979, things were not much easier. I remember my mom taking a pound of ground beef and stretching it into seven days of meals for us because that’s all she could afford.

In 1981, I got really sick. I spent time in and out of the hospital for years, including ICU, and it took the doctors two years to finally diagnose me with Crohn’s Disease. They told my mom I was sick from stress and I will never forget seeing her cry uncontrollably, thinking that she had caused my illness. It was awful.

Fast forward to 1988 when I moved to Ottawa to live with my dad. Shortly after, I quit my last year of high school without receiving a diploma. I worked for minimum wage and spent more than I had on credit cards that never should have been issued to me. I lived in an apartment at the corner of Clarence and Cumberland in the Byward Market.

When I shared my story with Kathie, about what my life had been like and what my life is like now, I said to her, “I’m not special. If I can do it, anyone can.”

She stopped me and said “I won’t have any of that. You are special because you acted, in spite of all of this, and you created the life you have. And, people need to know this about you and how you did it. Not only that, they are special, those who listen to your story and those who are looking for inspiration. They are all special.”

Kathie believes that we are all special and that we all have a special story and…

She helped to open my eyes to this and showed me that the things I thought made me normal – working hard and getting stuff done – were exactly what made me special!

So, what’s your story?

The truth is, you get to decide who you want to be and your actions govern whether or not that happens in life.

Those people you see who float through a room and seem to have it all together, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. We all have a story, we all have a past and we can all control the future of our lives based on the actions we take.

So tell me, what story are you ready to change in your life and what inspired action are you ready to take? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.