A funny thing happened on my way to giving a speech in San Francisco, and by “funny,” I mean absolutely terrifying.
Many of you know me as an author, podcaster, and/or general bloviator on social media and elsewhere, but my main job in life is as a professor at NYU. This job also makes me a citizen of the university, meaning I am often called upon (very happily!) to travel around the world to speak to alums in places like London, Abu Dhabi, and, last week, California.
I was on my first day of buzzing around the state when I found an hour to rest before speaking to about 120 people. I hit the bed and set my alarm for 6 pm.
At which time I woke up…to a very blurry world. In one eye, that is. “What the heck is happening,” I thought, “I can’t see a thing!” Naturally, I immediately turned to ChatGPT, and just as quickly, I knew I had to get to an emergency room. You do not mess around with eyes.
Just that moment, my daughter Sophia called to ask if she could borrow a pair of shoes from my closet. I told her what was happening. She took the news in a very calm and mature way, except that is a total lie.
Luckily, I am good friends with my ophthalmologist in New York – good enough that I have his cell number – and luckier still, he is friends with the head of ophthalmology at the UCSF medical center. One thing led to another, by 8 pm, I was being seen by a superb specialist.
Yes, if you are wondering, I did give the speech in between. Don’t ask me how I did it. I have no idea. I am told no one noticed that I was having a massive panic attack the whole time.
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Here’s the great news. My sudden blurriness was caused by a totally common thing called a posterior viscous detachment that happens WHEN YOU ARE OLD. It fixes itself, and in fact, already has. But whatever, I guess this is proof that I am not aging backward, as I’ve been hoping.
File this one under: All’s well that ends well, but I love so many things about this experience I just have to share.
First, a ridiculous number of people were incredibly kind to me along the way. My colleague, Dustin Liu, whom many of you know from our Career Confidential podcast series, came with me the whole time, and somehow managed to produce a bag of gummy bears on the way to the hospital. I mean, how? The event’s moderator, Jamie Woolf, had known me all of one hour, and put her arms around me before the speech and said, “Everything is going to be OK.” I felt like my mother was with me. The specialist, called away from home for a favor on his night off, treated me with next-level kindness and concern. But it’s OK, because we became besties when he mentioned he was an entrepreneur on the side and I did Becoming You with him, and I think he might even come to the next Three Day Becoming You Intensive.
Second, in passing, I mentioned my New York eye doctor is my friend. Can I underscore that fact here? That happened because when I met him 15 years ago, I thought, “Well, here’s a new friend!” I cannot sell this life approach to you hard enough. Sometimes all you get from it is another friend, which is 100% wonderful in and of itself. And sometimes you get a lifeline when you think you’re going blind in San Francisco.
Third, I mentioned my daughter. She also turned to ChatGPT after we hung up…and diagnosed me with a stroke. She thus raised the alarm with all my children and their spouses, and I then had seven people following my every movement on their phones and sending affirmations like, “YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE IN THIS!” My daughter Eve researched the doctor I was seeing and sent me a list of his awards. My son-in-law Cauê shed tears of worry, witnesses say.
I’m sorry, I love this. I love all this. It is so easy to believe the world is a dark and hateful place, and too often it is, but terrified out of my mind, I was reminded that goodness, beautiful goodness, is everywhere.
It was worth the fright. |
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Becoming You Labs is growing faster than we can keep up with, which is a great problem to have, I’ll give you that, but it also means we are always in hiring mode, and lately, I have been in conversations with lots and lots of editorial candidates.
This has put me face-to-face with writers who are seeing their livelihood slipping away into AI’s caw. I am a writer myself by trade, so I get them in my bones. We are people who love words. We love making them go together. We love the poetry of creation. Many of the people I am speaking with are feeling desperate and despairing. I don’t blame them, and I feel for them deeply. I hope Becoming You Labs keeps growing so I can hire them all.
I will note, because I’m that schoolmarm, that I also hate that too many of the people I am interviewing are not prepared nearly enough. My friends, do your homework, and never ever go into an interview and ask questions you could have answered yourself with 15 minutes of research. Just saying. |
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Many have asked for an update on Betty the Bear in my backyard. She is still the queen of my backyard, and inasmuch, I have obtained bear spray just in case we cross paths. In a month or two, she goes in for her long winter’s nap, so until then, we shall have a respectful stand-off. Well, it’s respectful from my end. We will all just have to wonder where she stands.
Hoping you have a week free of bears and scares yourself,
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You Achieve Your #LifeGoals… Then What? A Conversation With Special Guest Kate Bartlett
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What if you’ve done it? You know, created the life of your dreams – fully living what you want to do, can do, and should do. It all sounds great (because, well, living your purpose tends to be that), but then what? How do you push beyond your dream life? In this special episode of Becoming You, I sit down with the one and only Kate Bartlett – content creator extraordinaire and now NYU Stern MBA student – to reveal what’s next for her, after having created the life she’s always wanted. |
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