The Space Between
The photo you see here is from one of our very first days in business. It was not my first day teaching but it felt like it. It felt like there was an eternity between where I had been and where I was going. I really didn’t know exactly where I was going but I just wanted to go with the person I love so dearly, my Krista Leann.
We are a family of six and FMG changed our lives. It has subsequently changed our lives over and over and over again. This is the natural progression of owning a business that cares about people. Often there is no balance and so you strive for integration. You find it somewhere between the time your eyes open and then close again for the day.
It is imperfect but isn’t every good journey? Every good journey, every good road has twists and turns you do not see coming. They are full of stops and trouble that you wouldn’t choose but find yourself muddling through. Is it just me? It can’t be, right? Do you experience this? Have you experienced the start of a season and somewhere along the way had pains, heartache, challenges, moments of great courage, moments of celebration and sometimes sadness and joy in the same moment.
If you have, you are in good company. I have not shed as many tears over anything in my life as I have in the past 16 months.
It has been full of normal life stuff that just pops up on the day that something else just happens to pop up, on the same day that someone just happens to drop a bomb of information that leads to a weekend with no ability to act because it is the weekend. Yay.
Life is like that though. It is unpredictable and oh we want it to be predictable. We try so hard, to manage the inputs and outputs and the through puts to get where we said we wanted to be.
When I look at this photo I wonder if I still would’ve gone through with this place knowing how hard the hard actually is and currently is. Would I have done something else? Would I have made decisions that were different?
We can get lost there. In the in-between. The “IF” questions. If only I did this. If only I saw this. If only I had this. If only they this. If only, if only.
We “if” our lives away sometimes. Has there been pain? Yes, more than I could ever feel again. Is there more to come? Yes. More than I believe I can handle but will come out on the other side, a sharper more refined version of myself.
Life is in the response to fires. Life is in the response to the pressure. We do not make all the right choices all the time as humans. We can’t. There are far too many variables to account for. So, we do the best we can and keep looking out the windshield.
We must be comfortable in the space between good and great….
That space is decades. As a teacher, I have taught for 20+ years 1 to 1 in private lessons. I know the difference between my beginning and my current state. It took 20 + years to be leader I am today. In those 20 + years, there was A LOT of refining. To make the impact I believe I can have on the world, that we can have, that our team and community can have on the world will take time.
Not just time. Intentional time. Learning to be refined instead of victimized.
You and I have the opportunity to live life in the middle of the mess. As I write this my heart is stirred because this season is hard. You can ask our team, Krista and I shoulder more than even they know. It is hard. But it is the space between that makes us who we will become.
No matter the choice.
No matter the outcome.
No matter the physical evidence.
No matter the pain points that exist and will exist.
We choose to live, albeit tired and stressed sometimes…we choose to live and sacrifice for the future version of ourselves that is proud of the choices we make today.
When I see the picture above.
I see a man who had no clue what he was getting into, though he had been there before. If I could give him advice it would be this:
Good is great until you know just how good, good can be. Keep going. Just keep swimming.
You’ve got whatever it takes to do what it is in front of you. Do not let the shame you feel in your heart be the scapegoat of your future. You are powerful and you are important.
Zack Schuyler
VP of Student Experience FMG