Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Chapter 7 — A Reunion and Some Revelations

“Often at work and in life, we miss out on opportunities to connect with our core values due to the restricting pursuit of perfection. Time spent learning, making mistakes, taking risks, and practicing is often just as important as the outcome. It can be scary to pursue the things you care about, b ut don’t hinder your own growth out of fear of imperfection.” Susan David After several decades growing in my career, I still thought about the KU locker painting incident from time to time. While I believe I did it for just reasons, I didn’t handle it in the appropriate way , so in 2018 I reached out to my former boss through LinkedIn with the following email. In my mind, no one who I worked with there had any respect for me, but I at least wanted my boss to understand my heart was in a good place even if my actions were not appropriate. I really appreciated how kind you were to me and will always remember you going to help me get out of that dumpy apartment lease. I usually had to figure things out on my own, so your willingness to help me like that was so meaningful. I hope I thanked you enough then, but just wanted to say thank you again. I know I have been a better leader and helped many of my staff through the years because I was shown early on by you that kindness and caring helps gain the loyalty of employees and is simply the right thing to do. Secondly, I have always regretted we didn’t talk about the locker painting incident. Clearly, I would have handled that diffe rently today, but I have always felt I let you down, embarrassed, disappointed you. I am truly sorry if I did. The girls felt less-than, unimportant having a dark, drab locker room that didn’t at all resemble KU colors (orange and beige). I learned it was reques ted the locker room be painted and the answer was no, but they’d put higher wattage light bulbs in to brighten it up. As an i dealistic young woman, I was upset by that but of course have learned that there are sometimes other things that staff don’t know about that can lead to what may seem to be a poor, unfair decision. Young and inexperienced, it just seemed wrong. The point I was trying to make is that paint doesn’t cost much at all, and the women’s team deserved at least that. Not necessarily the same type of locker room as the men, but at least paint. Regardless, I intended no harm, I just wanted to surprise the women’s team and have them feel supported. I have always regretted not at least explaining that to you and letting you know I never intended it to be a negative reflection on you as my boss. My intent was pure, and I honestly was just that naive I didn’t realize the impact it could hav e. I could have come to you if I thought there was something that should be looked into, not taken matters into my own hands. So, while very delayed, I hope you will accept my apology and my thanks for not firing me. DEC 29, 2018, Ginger Bliss sent the following message at 3:46 PM: I was recently thinking about reaching out and then saw the following article and knew I must.

My sincere best wishes to you all in 2019 and always, Ginger

A Great Boss is hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. | brigettehyacinth.com

I was invited to attend a KU Sports Information Reunion in Lawrence on September 22, 2019. I was very nervous about going to the reunion, feeling like I had left all those years ago with my head hanging in shame as I walked out the door. I had planned to go to the scheduled events on both Friday evening and Saturday, but when Friday afternoon rolled around, I just couldn’t do it. I lost my courage to show up by myself. My daughter had agreed to go with me on Saturday, so I felt like with her support, I would be able to at least go to the football game and if that went well, maybe also the dinner after.

Once I showed up and started talking with people, it was absolutely fine. Everyone was very kind, so my fears were unfounded. When I saw photos of everyone who had been there on Friday, though, I very much regretted my decision since some people were only able to participate on Friday, not Saturday.

271