I am extremely fortunate to count some of the previous Women of Inspiration as my friends and in some cases my inspiration. It is a bit
overwhelming to be included in a group of women I hold in such high regard, and
who have done amazing things in our community. I am admittedly proud to be
counted among them, and I am unashamed in that pride as I think being proud of
what we do or accomplish is not something of which to be ashamed.
I am a huge fan of Girls Inc. as their mission is to
encourage young women to be smart, bold and strong. These qualities are ones I
hope all people aspire to, but I suppose given the fact that I am a woman and
the mother of a daughter I am even more passionate about ensuring young women
embrace those qualities.
Being smart, bold and strong will not make the world a
perfect place. It will still be a place of challenges and difficult times, but
those qualities prepare us to face those moments and to meet them with a
mixture of intelligence, strength and courage that allows us to conquer them.
Being smart, bold and strong is not necessarily something we are born with,
though – we need to have those around us to encourage it, to foster our
development as individuals and as human beings. We need to learn those
qualities and how to use them – and through their programs and advocacy work
Girls Inc of Northern Alberta does exactly that.
I happen to live with a smart, bold and strong young woman.
She is intensely opinionated, and she is brave in a way that at times even
startles me. She is not perfect (much like her mother) but she inspires me
every single day to be a better person, to work harder, to strive for
excellence in what I do and to be honest and true to myself in the same way I
want her to be honest and true to herself. And the reality is that it isn’t
always easy, not for either of us.
Not everyone appreciates strength, intelligence and boldness
in women. There are those who find it intimidating and who are threatened by
it. I fear that someday my daughter may encounter the same kind of people that
have always tried to silence strong, smart and bold women – the kind that every
smart, strong and bold woman I know has encountered in their life. But what I
want her to know is that there is a group of women who stand behind her and
with her, and with all the young women of this world. There is a group of women
who will defend the right to be strong, smart and bold, who derive their
inspiration from each other and from the young women of this world who are
developing their own strength, courage and intelligence. The Women of
Inspiration are a just a few of those women, a collective of those who want to
encourage other women of all ages to embrace their own strength, courage and
intelligence and to share it with the world – even when it seems some in the
world want to quell it.
I don’t feel like I am a woman of inspiration, to be honest.
I feel as if I am a woman who is inspired by all the women around me who do so
many incredible things, the ones who are captains of our industry, who run our
social profit organizations, who advocate for causes large and small, who find
the courage to deal with the challenges, the intelligence to navigate tricky
waters and the strength to forge on building our community every single day.
I am honoured to be a Woman of Inspiration. I am grateful to
Girls Inc of Northern Alberta and those who saw fit to nominate me for this
honour. I am however perhaps even more grateful to all those, especially the
women, who have supported my daughter and I in this community and helped us to
achieve our goals and dreams. As a Woman of Inspiration if I am able to inspire
just one person – maybe even my own daughter – to strive to be a strong, smart
and bold woman then I have accomplished something of which I am deeply proud.
Part of being strong, smart and bold is recognizing that it is okay to be proud
of yourself at the same time you feel humbled – and today I feel both of those
things, and am so happy to be able to share them with you.
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