One of the biggest misconceptions I've ever believed was that asking for help should come naturally.

I thought people either did it well or they didn't. I assumed the people who reached out when they were struggling were simply wired differently than I was. Stronger, maybe. More open. More comfortable being vulnerable.

Actually, I think asking for help is a skill.

Dear reader,

I’ve opened up a blank google doc countless times over the last several weeks and just stared at it. I’m doing it again now. Hopefully, this time, words will fall from the sky and land on the page so I don’t have to keep agonizing over its blankness and what it says about me – Am I blank? Google: is “blank” an adjective I can use to describe a person? Have I already emptied out all of my thoughts? Will they ever replenish? 

Turning on the news and hearing concerns that there is a 1 in 10 chance AI and computers could destroy the world in the next 10 years feels like stepping into a sci-fi movie. Compound this with news of war, children being killed by it, the rise of climate-related disasters, the cost of living and increased poverty, and the future can feel very bleak. What makes this feel even darker is the realization that, intended or not, each of these things is a product of someone’s work. It is easy to think of “work” as something we just have to do to make money to pay the bills – but in reality, our work creates the culture, community, and world we live in.