I’m a “multipotentialite (Emilie Wapnick)”

I enjoy doing many things. I believe in the

lifelong exchange of ideas and opportunity.

I’m creative and intense, yet disciplined and structured. I’m adaptable but

consistent enough to just believe

I can do anything.

I have a heart for triumph!

I believe in bringing a level of intensity

to life that requires a response.

I see myself as a pivot player

who can move and adapt to the

people and the places my purpose encounters.

I am a learner, leader, leverager, and believer…

I am a Warrior Woman!

I am choosing to be happy & to live free!

It was a summer day in 1992. I was lying around watching MTV. They still played music videos then. I’d already flunked out of college. There are a million reasons why that happened–too much partying, lack of direction, and lack of support. Mostly it was because I had no foundation to speak of but I didn’t know that then. I just thought I was a loser…stupid…too dumb to go to college.

I’d already started working on Plan B, which was to join the military. I knew I needed to be self-sufficient.

Problem was, the military wheel can turn slowly and nothing was happening fast enough for me.

The waiting left me with way too much time to ruminate on all those negative thoughts. Feeling so badly about myself made me really depressed. I had decided I couldn’t live anymore. What was the point? I didn’t seem to mean anything to anyone and I sure wasn’t going to be able to accomplish anything. My life was pretty grim. I started plotting. I knew I didn’t want my mom to find my body but she needed some sense of closure. She hadn’t been the greatest mom but I couldn’t imagine doing that to her.

I knew she’d be upset even with closure, but I rationalized that she’d get over it.

 I ran through various scenarios in my head until I settled on one. I thought it might be hard to follow through but I didn’t feel like I had any other option. I figured out how I would do it and where I would do it. It was just the when I was struggling with. Just about that time something on the television caught my eye. A woman with bright red hair was rolling around in this box barely big enough for her.

I turned up the volume and sat mesmerized. Her voice was amazing and she was singing lyrics that really spoke to me. She was describing everything I was feeling or had felt.

 As the video was ending, I grabbed a pen and jotted down her name. In that moment I decided I couldn’t die until I heard absolutely everything she had to say. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s the exact moment I began to heal.

 I guess it was good I lived in a tiny little town with no record store. The internet didn’t exist yet so that wasn’t a possibility. I looked everywhere I could think of and I could not find her album anywhere. I refused to give up. Occasionally I would catch myself humming the chorus of the song, which only reminded me to keep looking.

 Soon summer turned to fall and fall to winter.

I was called to enlist and had to leave immediately. I went through basic training, tech school, and then got sent to my permanent station. It was a few months later before I ran across the album. It did not disappoint. Every song on that album spoke to me as if it was written just for me. My life had already gotten better. I was self-sufficient, I had some support, and my confidence was growing every day. Listening to that album was like tearing open wounds I refused to acknowledge, and slowly, they began to heal.

I learned something from that experience. The smallest action or expression can make a huge difference to someone. I share credit for saving my life with the musician who made the music and with myself for being open to it.

 In case you’re wondering, I didn’t stay in the military.

I got out, did some other stuff, and finally went back to school. I completed a Bachelor’s and a Master’s and graduated at the top of my class for both degrees.

I built my foundation from a song. Now I teach other people how to build their own foundations so I’d say things have pretty well come full circle.

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