August 12 – can we be frank?

19/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me. After getting used to the new me in my university years – face, body, and burgeoning personality – I lucked out getting a job at Expo 86 and not just any job, I was a host for the BC Pavilion. My confidence boosted after horrible years at high school (read gratitude post 15/365), I was selected as one of about 100 or so hosts and hostesses to welcome guests to the host province’s pavilion. I represented Richmond, BC. We had three different teams and I was in a rotation with the latter third of the alphabet. You would always be teamed up with the same people and I was sandwiched between Frank and Karen. I was still nervous around new people and how they would react to me – to this day, I still have insecurities around my appearance and think people are going to judge me based on such – and was very worried on how I was being perceived so I did not initiate conversations and just did my job. Unbeknownst to me, Frank had decided that if he was going to be working with me for 6 months, he was going to crack my shell but not only crack it, break it, smash it, crush it – until the real me popped out. So every shift, Frank would make comments and jokes to get me to be comfortable. The comments in early October started out as benign but as the months progressed, so did the theme of the comments to wanton and risqué – not just pushing envelopes but shoving them!! I didn’t know how to react as I was never inside the boys’ club and here was a guy making me laugh and for the first time I was feeling a sense of camaraderie and belongingness – oh Maslow, you so got it right!! He got me and finally years of wariness at people’s intentions towards me caved and I loosened up and let go and thanks to Frank’s efforts developed into the happy-go-lucky guy I am today. Once again, as with many of the others I have thanked, I have lost touch with Frank but I will never forget working with him and the lasting impact he had on me!