{"id":1147,"date":"2009-04-21T13:50:41","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T17:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2009-04-21T13:50:41","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T17:50:41","slug":"is-this-a-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/is-this-a-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This a Test?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three hours after the opening of <\/em>Compelling Storytelling<\/em><\/strong> last June, Sandy Dempsey decided she had made a terrible mistake in coming. During the lunch break, she ran into co-presenter Alice Barry and shared her misgivings. Alice smiled at Sandy and said, “Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship!” Not only was that just what Sandy needed to hear, but on the final day of the seminar she shared a moving essay about her own journey which she’d written the night before.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To everyone’s delight, Sandy has been making great progress and has started a terrific blog called <\/em>The Dreaming Cafe<\/em><\/a>. The following piece was posted there on her return from Denver last weekend.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

By the way, you can meet Sandy Dempsey if you join us for<\/em> <\/em>Follow Through Camp<\/strong><\/em><\/a> in Dodge City, May 15 & 16.<\/em><\/p>\n

Watching some of the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen fall from the sky Friday afternoon from my hotel window in Denver, Colorado, I asked myself, “Is this a test?” \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

At one point it was snowing up to four inches per hour. Depending on where you were in the city, expected snow accumulations were 8-14 inches, outside the city up to 36 inches and in the foothills a few hours away, 48 inches.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

About the same time my flight touched down, another plane was struck by lightening just prior to landing.\u00a0 Luckily no one was hurt. There were reported tornado spottings.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The snow and rain was causing flooding. Numerous flight delays and cancellations were expected Saturday since the storm was slow moving and appeared to have stalled. By Friday night I-70, a major interstate, was shut down stranding hundreds of drivers that needed to be rescued and moved to shelters. Thousands in and around the city had lost power due to the heavy, wet snow causing tree limbs to fall and wires to break.<\/span><\/p>\n

What the heck was I doing here?\u00a0 Was I crazy?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why was I in Denver? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I reminded myself that I was here to participate in Barbara Winter’s <\/span>Making a Living Without a Job and <\/span>Establish Yourself as an Expert\u00a0workshops at the Colorado Free University.\u00a0 I was here for some ‘continuing education’. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday morning, an hour before the first workshop was to start, I headed out in the snow and rain.\u00a0 It was slow going.\u00a0 At one point I almost got stuck in eight inches of slush at a stop sign.\u00a0 Didn’t they plow in Denver? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0And, again, I thought to myself, “Is this a test?”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I found The Colorado Free University, but I didn’t see many cars and the parking lot was worse than the roadways. This is crazy, I thought, and I turned around and headed back to the hotel.\u00a0 As each mile clicked off the GPS, the knots in my stomach grew tighter.\u00a0 I know what giving up feels like and it doesn’t feel good.<\/span><\/p>\n

About halfway back, I pulled into a Burger King and called the school.\u00a0 After being on hold for five minutes I finally got through to someone in student services.\u00a0 He was very nice.\u00a0 He confirmed that nothing was cancelled and classes would be held as scheduled.\u00a0\u00a0I took a deep breath and turned back around.\u00a0 It was raining and snowing even harder.\u00a0 The tire tracks were being covered with fresh snow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten minutes later I slid into the parking lot.\u00a0 Noticing all the unplowed snow and slush I prayed that I would be able to get out at the end of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trudging through about six inches of slush, soaking my shoes, socks and pants, I entered the school and found the classroom rather quickly. There was one other student waiting.\u00a0 No Barbara.\u00a0 A few other students drifted in.\u00a0 No Barbara.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was getting a little panicky.\u00a0 I had talked to Barbara briefly the day before and although I had her cell number I knew it would not be on because she told be she didn’t have her charger with her.I decided to take a walk, breath, relax and look outside.\u00a0 Just as I rounded the corner a blast of cold air hit me and there in the doorway stood Barbara Winter.\u00a0 I can’t tell you how happy I was to see her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The workshops, one right after another flowed in Barbara Winter fashion; tons of information, lots of stories to help you remember all the finer points and lots of camaraderie among the students.\u00a0 My brain was on overload.\u00a0 But, it was a good overload.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that night, watching more rain fall and the snow begin to disappear in my part of the city, I thought again, “Was this a test?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Yes, looking back, I think it was.\u00a0 There were so many times I could have given up and turned back.\u00a0 But, I didn’t. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0I took action despite the weather, my fears and self-doubt.\u00a0 I made it to Denver.\u00a0 I braved the storm.\u00a0 I met new people.\u00a0 And I made it back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t give up.<\/span><\/p>\n

This won’t be the last test or obstacle I will encounter on my journey, but it will serve as a reminder of what I am capable of overcoming.<\/span><\/p>\n

How about you?\u00a0 Have you ever been ‘tested’?\u00a0 What did you learn?\u00a0 Share your story with me.\u00a0 Email me at\u00a0<\/span>Sandy@TheDreamingCafe.com<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three hours after the opening of Compelling Storytelling last June, Sandy Dempsey decided she had made a terrible mistake in coming. During the lunch break, she ran into co-presenter Alice Barry and shared her misgivings. Alice smiled at Sandy and said, “Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship!” Not only was that just what Sandy needed…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fellow-travelers","jsn-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}