Oh the places you will Flamingo!

Oh the places you will Flamingo!

12 years ago I arrived at my first National Football League (NFL) league meeting in Arizona in my usual casual travel attire. As I walked through the lobby I saw a few groups of other people from across the league and it seemed that almost everyone was wearing khaki pants and traditional colored polo shirts. I was already very nervous about this meeting, feeling like I didn’t belong and now I didn’t have the standard issued khaki pants and polo shirt! 🙈

Instead of being me and rocking my normal fun patterns, I pretended I was going for a run and went store to store until I found a black polo with a parrot on it at Jimmy Buffet’s margaritaville. I bought the shirt and went back and changed for the cocktail hour. That shirt was like a safety blanket for me…

By the end of the night I made many new friends and I even shared the story of my polo with a few people and we all laughed about it. Through that night and those conversations I gained the confidence to wear my normal bright shoes and fun patterns the next morning.

There have been several moments through my life where I was afraid to be me, but those days are behind me. I loved that I could walk into our meetings today with my flamingo shirt and a pile of confidence.

#WhatsYourCUENTO

#confident #Proud # #travel #like #people #NFL