I have said "I'm done" more times than I can count. I have meant it every single time. And yet.
The moment something actually gets fixed. Sometimes it's one phone call. One conversation with the right person and suddenly the thing that has been broken for three months is handled. It's almost offensive how simple it can be. But it works and you remember that and it keeps you from completely losing faith in the process.
Because if not me, who? And I say that with full awareness of how it sounds. Trust me. But someone has to show up. Someone has to read the agenda and ask the inconvenient question and stay until the last item. That's just the reality. We are responsible for us. Whatever "us" means to you. Your neighborhood. Your school. Your HOA. Nobody is coming to save it. That's the whole point.
The circus you didn't know you needed. In your professional life you are mostly surrounded by people who have something in common with you. Same company, same goals, same general operating altitude. Even your family, as complicated as they are, make a certain kind of sense to you.
And then there's your board.
Your board colleague might be a highly effective executive. Or a single parent. Or a 90 year old retiree who has been to every neighborhood meeting since before you were born. A teacher. An unemployed artist. People you would never otherwise sit in a room with, trying to accomplish the same thing from completely different angles and with wildly different skill sets and honestly sometimes you're not sure how any of you ended up here together.
And yet.
You can count on the retiree to show up to the tabling event when the rest of you are shuttling kids to soccer practice. You can count on the artist to make the most visually unhinged flyer you have ever seen in your life and you will have to gently explain that the flyer should probably communicate what the event actually is. And that mom who's already going to the market? She's got the water and the snacks handled before you even asked.
Will someone please help the senior citizens understand how to use text messages. Please. I am begging.
But here's the thing. There is something genuinely magical about a complete circus of mismatched humans with one rallying idea. You will not find this anywhere else in your life. Not at work. Not at home. Only here.
That's worth something.
