The Word "No"

Today Erin and I had to go to downtown Belfast and conduct a survey for our Politics class. We have both been dreading doing this ever since September when we received the assignment. Anyways, we took our notebook and pen and hopped on the bus and complained about how awful it was going to be for the entire 20 minute bus ride. We go off the bus and looked around for a kind face who wouldn't turn us away when we asked them if we could ask them 10 questions about social issues. But, the truth is it didn't even turn out to be so bad. It was hard for me to go up to strangers and talk to them, but we only got rejected once! I think it was partially because we were little blonde girls from America with funny accents, but either way, it was a growing experience.

Then Ross Wilson, a talented and uber-friendly Irish artist came and talked to our class in the afternoon. He said something that made me think, he told us that he learned early on in his career not to be afraid of the word "no"...this really connected with what I had been learning with Erin. Don't be afraid of rejection, because the worst they could do is say "no" and that's really not so bad. There are hundreds of scarier things than the word "no", like rats and spiders and guns and knives.

Just a small thought.