One of the very best parts of our work as writers is getting to tell the stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things with their lives.
It’s what attracted me to journalism in the first place, and it’s what keeps me in the writing game some 20 years later.
Every person you meet and every story you tell has an impact – changing who you are, the choices you make and your perception of the world.
It’s a vocation with rare privilege and it grounds me, humbles me and drives away the fear when that inevitable writer’s doubt creeps in.
And I’m not afraid to admit that the doubt comes calling regularly.
Especially on the big jobs.
January brought one of those ‘pinch me’ moments when the opportunity arose to work with the world’s leading authority on raw beauty – Kemi Nekvapil.
Kemi is an author, speaker, life coach, yoga teacher, chef and former actress with an enormous presence, and she’s working to shape a world where women stop chasing their worth by cutting, burning, injecting, hiding and starving themselves.
English born with a Nigerian heritage, she spent her entire childhood in foster care and draws on her early experiences of disempowerment to inspire other women to create lives of worthiness and fulfillment.
I had the good fortune of spending some time with Kemi in September last year when she was guest speaker at Imagine The Possibilities – an event I was hosting in a Splendid Word capacity on behalf of Moama Bowling Club.
To cut a long story short, that chance meeting led to an opportunity to do some writing for her.
First came the excitement – then right on cue entered fear and doubt. (Remember Kemi’s a speaker and author…)
But after spending time interviewing this extraordinary woman, who is of course very normal and battles her own set of fears, I was able to get on with doing what I love most. Telling her story.
You can read some of it over on her website, and we’ll be posting another blog here in the coming weeks featuring our exclusive Q & A.
Stay tuned, or better still, hear Kemi’s captivating story in person when she makes a return to Echuca Moama later this month to host her Raw Beauty Masterclass at Moama Bowling Club.
X Lee
#spreadingthegoodstuff
