The Ugly Cry - The Story Behind the Photo

On the day of the 6th Annual Gutless and Glamorous Fundraising Soiree I’d pretty much been on the verge of tears all that day. To me, it seemed as if nothing was going as planned.

First, the stylist that was supposed to do my hair forgot. I kept telling myself ok cool it’s only hair, I’ll try to do it myself. But I also kept thinking how this might throw me off. What you may not realize is that I try to conserve my energy and plan as best as I can for that night. So something, as trivial to some, as doing my own hair can be exhausting for someone like me.

Then, my phone was blowing up all day. I was receiving multiple texts, messages, & calls from multiple people telling me they couldn’t make it that night. Trust me, I understand life happens. Trust me. But I’m human, I think I am allowed to be disappointed because it seemed as though no one was coming. At the time, I couldn’t help but to question if it is all worth it. I had honestly thought about cancelling the event this year because of all the traveling I had been doing. I knew it would be a lot on me physically and it was. And now, to top it all off it seemed as if I was doing all of this for nothing. I had pretty much made up in my mind that this would be the last year I’d be doing this event (actually, the Sunday following the event I became sick and there is no doubt in my mind it’s because I had done entirely too much and it finally caught up with me).

But the show must go on right? That night as people started showing up one of the first things that I said was, “it’s going to be just us tonight”, but every single person I told that to said, “that’s okay, we are here and that’s what counts!” First of all, thank you for that. I couldn’t help but to smile because they were absolutely right. So I decided to be present & enjoy the moment. And I did. We truly had a wonderful time!

And then THIS. I’m enjoying the night, talking, and somebody taps me on my shoulder. I look up and half smile then go about my business because I didn’t really recognize them at first. Then I guess her face registered in my mind but it was weird, it was like a delayed reaction because the face I recognized, I thought couldn’t actually be here, but it was. I finally realized who she was and I froze for an itty bitty tiny split second, then I took off running in the opposite direction, hid in a corner and cried. My best friend flew in from the sunny state of California and surprised me!!

This is a picture of her pulling me out of the corner holding my hand and saying, I got you. For me, it was almost like God knew I would need an extra little push or reminder. Things may not work out how you want them, when you want them to, or how you want them to. But they always work out how they are supposed to. Try to take a breath and enjoy the moments as they are happening. It’s all worth it, even for brief moments such as these. We all need somebody in our corner cheering you on during the good times and holding your hand during the bad. Although it may not seem like it at the time, happiness is always around the corner!