Back to School (Misfit Edition)

The new school year is back in full swing. Although I LOVE summer and the way I feel less stressed, scheduled, longer days and sunlight hours, I also love the structure and battening down that happens when the leaves start to fall.

I love a good planner.

But there are other things about the fall that gets me all twitchy. I have kids, you know, and that means I have back-to-school-kid-things like Open Houses, field hockey games, team dinners, Boosters. Perhaps it's my introverted nature or my fear of being judged, but I find myself dreading these rituals.

I feel like an outsider in these settings. A misfit. I'm not sure exactly what to say, how to begin the small talk. I leave games wondering how everyone knows each other so well, and how I can get some of that.

The first time I went to Kripalu, I had heard about the saunas. I knew I had to to but I was a little nervous. I moved past the nervousness, and went in with the intention of being open. I literally said to myself, outloud, "Let's go in there and see what the Universe has in store."

I ended up talking to a woman who was also a consultant. She did circus arts, a bit different than my field, but we shared an entrepreneurial spirit and she was very talkative. At one point in the conversation, she told me that some of her best (most lucrative) deals happened as the result of a chat in that very sauna.

"But," she laughed, "you have to talk. You have to put it out there. Some people come in here and want silence. And that's cool, too, but if you want to make it happen? You have to talk."

I laughed, too.

I thought back to that conversation when I was on the field the other day. I was watching my daughter and feeling thrilled about her smile in the game. She looked so carefree and joyous.

I turned to the woman next to me, "Hi! It's nice to see you. The girls are doing great!" Before long, we were talking about our naughty dogs, about Halloween, and our girls growing up. It felt good. Are we besties? Nope. Do I remember her name? Noooope. 

​But I might have found another misfit.