Safe to be afraid

Just when I thought it was safe to be afraid … it was. Friday afternoon’s session with (CQ Coaches) Mary Ann Hogan and Dick Thien and the Chipsters was much needed medicine to my soul. My fears of being forced into a hermitic lifestyle dropped severely. The session was an hour-long moment of clarity and comfort that I won’t ever forget. It was therapeutic to express my fears as part of an important discussion rather than babble about them to start conversations. Before I got here, several friends told me that I would do fine, partly because they’re my friends and partly because they know I will. My roommate, Adam Causey, told me that I’d be fine. My newsroom buddy wrote me an e-mail and told me the same thing. I guess I believed them, but where was my proof? It was in Hogan and Thien, who like Willie Allen, know what I’m going through, what I’m about to go through and how to articulate my feelings better than I. And knowing is half the battle. I wish I could pack them with me, but I guess their contact info will do.

-- David Lipscomb, University of Maryland, Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, N.Y.

(David Lipscomb is shown as the day begins at orientation. Photo by Susanica Tam.)