If you’re a World Racer (or are about to be one) I want you to take just a minute and think.
Think about your best friends. Think about how you interact with them. Think about why you love them. Think about what you do when you have a crappy day and how your friends help you handle it. Think about what you do when they have a bad day. Think about how it feels.
This is your best friends we’re talking about. The people you choose to hang out with at home. The people who know the real you.
When I think about my friends, I think about how much I love them. Seriously. I love hanging out with them, living with them, just being with them. I think about the moments that I’d come home from work, absolutely exhausted from chasing kids all day and go hang out in my roommate’s room and just talk with her, curled up on her bed. I think about the days that my friends and I all planned to go to the corn maze together and ran around like little kids. I think about all the sudden trips to get Cane’s chicken or the random hugs or the sweet notes.
I also think about how much I’m an introvert. I enjoy my alone time. I think about how I know if I’m truly friends with someone or not. Wanna know my friendship test? I know I’m really good friends with someone when I can sit next to them, not talking, and still feel like I’m alone. Not because they’re ignoring me but because their presence doesn’t hinder me from gaining the energy I need. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it does to me, so there’s that.
I am most vulnerable in those moments. I am most vulnerable when I am sitting silently with someone, not using the words I hide behind to defend myself. It is then that I trust my friends to let me just be me.
My dear, dear friends: The World Race is no different.
Sometimes we get all bent out of shape about vulnerability. We think it means airing all of your dirty laundry every day and crying for hours with your team and opening up to share things you’re scared to share. And that is all great. Really. That is being vulnerable. But that’s more like a verbal kind of vulnerability in my opinion. I think there’s more.
And I think we have a tendency to forget about other kinds of vulnerability. We forget that playing soccer with your teammates can be a form of vulnerability for people who feel terrible at sports. We forget that curling up on your teammate’s bed can be a form of vulnerability to people who have trust issues. We forget that asking your teammate to braid your hair can be a form of vulnerability for people who don’t ask for help. Ever. We forget that there is so much more that we can use than just our words to display our vulnerability to others.
You are opening up a piece of yourself in a different kind of way and trusting those around you to love you no matter the faults you see in yourself.
No, I am not giving you an excuse to cop out and stop being verbally vulnerable with people and to stop admitting when you are struggling/need help/want prayer/etc. But I am asking you to expand your point of view. Look at vulnerability from another perspective. Know that your teammates are trying to be vulnerable with you, but you might miss it if you don’t look closely.
