C’est Moi, Vraiment!

My grandmother left me with many fond memories, a recipe for a killer lemon meringue pie, her scrapbook and a mystery. The book is a full account of her life in photos, complete with a last chapter. On the final page of the book she had pasted a photo of her 87-year-old self wearing a flowery bright green sundress. Under the photo she had written the words, C’est Moi, Vraiment! And herein lies the mystery.

Did her final statement mean that she was surprised to see herself as an old woman — is this really me? Or, did it mean that this was really her — thin gray hair, wrinkles and all.  Either way, the fact that she wrote that inscription, in French no less, is intriguing, revealing, very endearing and an exclaimation of individualism.

We all fear becoming a face in the crowd so we strive to be more. But with age comes acceptance. We get comfortable and stop making excuses. We’d like to think of or lives as a movie that is full of climactic moments. But in reality, it’s a series of small moments, not grand statements. When I’ve asked event professionals what satisfies them most about their jobs, they almost always say it’s that moment when guests walk into the room. But I have my doubts.

I always say my favorite part of writing is the end result, the printing of a magazine, the posting of an article and the reaction from others. But really, I am fueled by editing and re-editing a sentence to make it perfect, putting my thoughts into words and discovering a new way to think about something. I keep writing because I love this process.

I think it’s the same with event professionals – they don’t really keep doing what they do to hear an “ooh” or “aah,” although of course that’s nice! But something else keeps them passionate about what they  do — the connections made with others along the way, solving a tricky design problem, that first step into a refrigerator filled with flowers or when they receive a crate filled with juicy red strawberries. These are the small moments when everything is ripe with potential.

Once guests walk into an event, or in my case, once I post a blog, the creation is finished. Perhaps that is what my grandma meant to say when she sat down to pasted that photo in her scrapbook and write those words. Her event, blog, life, creation was finished and she was ready for the next phase.

As I live my creation, every day I ask for knowledge and to receive it when I’m ready. I’m thankful for my talents and for being able to use them. I ask for new challenges, but I ask for peace of mind to accept myself as I am. While that might make me a face in the crowd I am much more to the people I love and who love me. I try to enjoy life’s small pleasures as well as its big dramas to reach my potential and to fill my own scrapbook.

My hope is that when I’m done I can tell also stare straight out at the world and say: it’s me … really!