Back in November, I received an email from a hospital in
South Dakota that had purchased my ONE VOICE package a couple of months earlier.
Because they don’t have child life specialists in their hospital, they wondered
if I ever traveled and presented ONE VOICE at other hospitals. I have only
presented ONE VOICE at hospitals where I’ve worked and child life conferences,
but this was definitely something I had been thinking about. I hadn’t actually pursued it because…well…quite frankly…it
scared the hooey out of me. For starters, I wasn’t even sure this was something
any other hospitals would even be interested in. Secondly, it just seemed like
a LOT of work! Not that I’m opposed to a lot of work…I put in countless hours
developing all the materials…especially that PowerPoint presentation! It just
seemed like a project that I could procrastinate on….so….well….I did! Now the
opportunity was before me and I just couldn’t pass it up, so I enthusiastically
said, “Absolutely!!” They said they’d be in touch and we’d work out the details
of speaker’s fees, travel, etc. Gulp.
There was no turning back now.
Thus begins the tale of the small town girl who, once again,
was in the Laaaand of the Clueless. I knew from my email exchanges that this
hospital had no child life specialist, wanted to start a new pediatric pain
management program, and they wanted ONE VOICE to be at the center of their new
focus. Cool. Let the games begin, and may be the odds ever be in my favor!
(GREAT books, by the way…check out the Hunger Games) I strategically chose THE LAST date that they
had given me as an option, knowing that I would need plenty of time to tighten
up my presentation. I was right in the middle of taking back-to-back online
grad classes that were making me a tired, cranky and teary-eyed woman on any
given day of the week. I had some really big projects coming up at work, too,
so I had to plan accordingly. In all honestly, I was completely overwhelmed. The hormone-driven-crazy-woman part of me
wanted to descend into a complete and total state of continual panic. However the rational side of me, the side that
said “first things first…you planned your projects in succession, just take on
one at a time,” won out. I had been very
methodical in planning of my projects. Now all I had to do was complete them;
easy enough. I also had to remind myself….every…single…day…that I would get
them all done, one at a time, just as I had planned.
When planning the presentation, I knew that I couldn’t just
do the “regular” ONE VOICE presentation; I was going to have to beef it up. The
nurse practitioner (NP) and I visited
about their patient population and the staff and she asked what I thought about
giving them just some basic information. I gave it some thought and I decided
that I would talk to them about kids’ reactions to hospitalization, how
children cope, how to approach them, what words to use, and then go into the ONE VOICE presentation.
Sounded easy enough….and…it was. The only thing that worried me was that whole
“time” thing. The entire workshop was going to be four hours, and I was being
given at least 2 ½ hours for my portion. Two…and a half…hours! That…is a loooong
time! For….a lesser woman perhaps…one
who does not possess a tie dye
cape!! I have no problems yapping that long...the only problem…I wanted to make
sure I was interesting. I mean, I can be
uninteresting when I’m not being paid
a lot of money…heck, I do THAT all the time. I just really wanted to make sure I was giving them what they paid
for.
So, in true Deb Wagers fashion, I continued to put the whole
thing off until about a week before it was time to board that plane. I’d given
it some thought in my usual places: car, walking, shower, in the potty…so when
the time came to add all my ideas into the presentation, it was virtually a
piece of cake. I really wanted to
worry about the presentation itself, or about my presentation of the presentation…but when it came down to it, I
wasn’t really worried at all. I was just really
excited. What an amazing opportunity
for me!! What a great chance to go and share my passion for making the lives of
sick children better!! I couldn’t wait for
the day to come!! And…thanks to my procrastinating, I didn’t have long to wait!
Well…the day came. I flew, I ate, I I drove, I got to the hotel pretty late, and
then….I had the dream. The dream that
allowed me to get about…2 ½ hours of sleep the night before the first
presentation. What dream might that be? The one where I showed up to school and
forgot to wear pants? No. It was the dream where the other two people who were supposed to do the first hour of the
presentation….forgot to show up. Yep, THAT’s the dream. I showed up to do my
presentation and the other two people forgot
to come. It was one of those dreams
where I KNEW I was dreaming and that it wasn’t real, but I just couldn’t wake
up! Unfortunately, I couldn’t really sleep
either. Oh well…yawn.
The first presentation
totally rocked! When the NP was introducing me, I got choked up, literally. I
had to fight the tears from flowing. She talked about how the pediatrics
department had identified that they needed to do a better job catering to their
pediatric population. They identified a number of things they could do better,
and somehow had landed on my website, www.onevoice4kids.com. She said that so many of the things they
wanted to incorporate were all right there in ONE place. They decided to make
that the focus of their workshops. I fought back the tears. I was SO incredibly proud and SO incredibly humbled,
all at the same time. I had doubts from the beginning of this project, not
really knowing if there would be a market for ONE VOICE. I believed in it 100%,
but there was always this little nagging doubt… “what if?” All of those doubts
came crashing down at this point. I had instant validation that others believed
too. Powerful, powerful moment.
The attendees were all very attentive, interactive and willing to learn. I was witty, charming
and informative. The nurse practitioner said everything went “perfectly” and no
changes were needed for the presentation on the second day. Score!! She was really pleased and so was I! Now I got to have some “Debbie time!” Mt.
Rushmore, here I come!!! It was a beautiful afternoon; the sun was shining, it
was about 73 degrees, and I had no laundry to do, no floors to vacuum, no guilt
about all the other things I should be
doing. After a relaxing drive around Mt. Rushmore with the music loud and the
windows down, I headed back into Rapid City for dinner and a drink. Rapid City
is a beautiful little town, full of a lot of culture and friendly people. I had
a great little dinner and a drink out on the patio of a little restaurant, and
enjoyed the success of what I’ve created. I thanked God for His eternal
presence in my life. To me, this was the finest moment yet. This was the culmination
of two years of hard work..I’d spent countless hours on this whole
project. From the very first day when I decided to apply for copyright, to now,
this shining moment. This was it. I reflected upon all the work that had gone
into making this all happen. I didn’t have a clue about how to make any of this happen when I started. All I
knew, was that ONE VOICE made a difference for children, and that was my
driving force.
I made a lot of phone calls, sent a lot of emails, did a lot
of talking (Gee, imagine that), and just asked a LOT of questions of a LOT of
different people, to get to where I was today.
My lesson in all of this is not about “Gee, look what I’ve
accomplished.” I’m not that kind of person. My message is to pursue your
dreams. If you don’t know how to do
something, find someone who does. If
you can’t find someone who knows, Google it! If Google doesn’t know, ask
someone else. Never give up. Be diligent. Work hard. If there is something you
really want…that you really believe in…you can’t let fear stand in your way.
“You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than
your faith.” ~ Mary Manin Morrissey
