I think I know how Tiffany felt the first time she heard her song, I Think We’re Alone Now, played on the radio. Go ahead, take a trip back to 1987. I’ll wait…
Okay, onto my story. I was walking through Walmart, browsing the Easter candy aisle when a beautiful woman about my age, stopped me.
“Excuse me, but are you Nicole?”
She went on to say that she reads my blog and joked about telling people what “her new best friend, Nicole” says.
Can you even imagine the size of my ego in that exact moment? It was bigger than a 3-foot tall chocolate bunny.
But with my ego so big, my brain got small. At that exact moment, with a bag of Reese’s in one hand and a box of Sour Patch bunnies in the other, my mind went blank. I should have had something kind or encouraging to say back to her, but instead I just kept thinking, “Someone reads my blog? And we’re not related? This is AWESOME!”
I wandered Walmart for another 45 minutes thinking pondering how brave and inviting that mystery woman was. She didn’t have to say anything. She could have just watched the ridiculous amount of sugar I put into my cart and then let me walk away. But she didn’t. She stepped out of her comfort zone and approached a stranger who may or may not have been who she thought she was.
You have that power inside of you, too. You have the 45 seconds it takes to pass on an encouraging word. You have the courage to talk to a stranger for the sole purpose of making her day a little bit brighter. Won’t you use that precious power today?
Thank you Walmart Woman. Thank you for inflating my ego. Don’t worry, I went home after shopping and found that two people had unsubscribed from my email list, so my ego is now back to normal.
***That last time I saw Tiffany she was on Celebrity Wife Swap, so I’m guessing her ego is pretty under control these days, too.
