Someone Hss to Go First…

Have you ever been the first to do anything? Like the first person in your family to go to college, travel overseas, not to have children, leave your home town, or even just dare to not do what everyone else in the family did? Meet Elizabeth Blackwell. She TOTALLY gets what it means to be the first at something. She was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. It happened in 1847. The stories I’m sure she could tell…

I LOVED this quote from Elizabeth Blackwell. It reminds us that it is not easy to go first AND yet it is exciting and fascinating. Can you imagine the conversations within her family when she announced that she wanted to be a Doctor? The disgust, ridicule, even the people who called her crazy or uppity! And that was probably just within her family. Imagine what happened when she submitted her application to the Medical School. No woman in the US had ever done it before. Talk about a trail blazer and barrier breaker…whew! At times it must have been exhausting. Yet she didn’t give up, she endured and worked hard and became a Doctor.

I have to admire her stamina and courage, to endure all the ridicule and disgust she had to survive in order to reach her goal. To not give up when so many things must have gotten in her way, most of which had nothing to do with studying medicine. I think in this instant word we live in – ordering online, phones that literally manage our entire lives, and anything we can imagine can be delivered right to our door – we forget that someone had to pay the price for us to have what we have now. Someone had to solve the problems, pave the way, endure the ridicule AND keep going. They had to trudge through the muck and mire to get that phone into our hands that now we can’t live without.

Are you going first in anything in your life? Daring to change the way you live, where you live, how you live or what you do for a living? Have you broken down barriers, changed mindsets, brushed off criticism or even endured ridicule as you forged your own path forward? If you answered yes to ANY of those questions, you are in good company. Nothing great ever happened unless someone went first. The blessings and luxuries we have today came at someone’s great expense. There is no free ride in this world. Someone fought the good fight so we could order paper on our phone and have it delivered tomorrow.

Maybe this is your time to be the pioneer and conquer barriers. Maybe you have been wanting to make a change but were reluctant to get started. Maybe your family, friends, coworkers, even your significant others do not totally understand your desire to change your life. That’s okay, they may never get it. If we wait for everyone to be okay and understand our life decisions, we would never take any steps towards progress or change. Have the courage and wherewithal to do it anyway. Take the leap and change your world. Elizabeth Blackwell did, and today women make us 54.6% of medical students in the US. Holy Cow! I’m glad she endured the turmoils and graduated…if she can do it, you can do it!