Fat and Fearless: The Sequel
This is a follow up to my previous article, Fat and Fearless.
With the amount of content that is lauched out into the digital world on a daily basis, it can be easy to forget that we all have an impact. Our articles, tweets, and Insta-stories are just a drop in the bucket, but if you’ve ever had a leaky roof — you understand how much impact just one drop can produce.
About three years ago, I published a piece here on Medium titled Fat and Fearless. It never got much traction and was totally overshadowed by the one piece that did receive a fair amount of attention, The Lonely Side of Freelancing.
I had kind of forgotten I even wrote this piece and I haven’t even been actively publishing on Medium. The main premise was that I had tried out a new challenging exercise — stand up paddle board (SUP) yoga — and that in the process had learned to overcome some of my insecurites about my body.
Then the other day, I received an email from Medium saying I had earned royalties from traffic to my articles. Shortly after, I received a new follow and a DM on Instagram from a stranger.
That stranger was Sheena Morris and our conversation over Instagram DM was such an example of synchronicity and a beautiful reminder that you never know how telling your story might change someone else’s life.
Oddly, enough, when I went back and reread Fat and Fearless, my own words jumped out at me:
This past weekend my fat and fear intersected in an interesting way for me — that I think might resonate with (or dare I say help) some people.
I guess I knew I might help someone…
Sheena (who has given me permission to tell her story) expressed to me that she had read my article in 2019 (this conversation was happening in 2021) when she was shopping for a SUP of her own.
She said she even saved the photo of me (featured above) and some other bigger girls doing yoga as motivation.
I about pooped my pants when I heard I was on someone else’s vision board. That’s life goals right there.
Sheena used those images to inspire her and take the leap to purchase her own SUP. She is now down 43 pounds, consistently kayaking, paddle boarding, and doing yoga. She shared with me this photo of her in 2019 and her now on the SUP, looking fabulously strong in both.
When I asked if I could share her story in another article, Sheena was enthusiastic. I really enjoyed these words she had to say:
I don’t want big people thinking they can’t do these things or being ashamed. Or they’re not capable, so any way I can spread that message makes me happy!
Sometimes the Internet can be a magical place.
