Give the Hour
On finals week, an 11 hour double, and the conversation I almost said no to.
Someone Asked to Interview Me Today.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. I worked an 11 hour double.
I got home, sat down at my desk, and did not sleep enough. Finals week started the very next day. Three presentations, one quiz, two papers, and three exams across four classes. All due within the same four days.
Then I got a message from a student at my school. He needed to interview someone currently working in the field he wants to go into. He picked marketing. He picked me.
My first instinct was to say I was too slammed.
I didn’t. And I’m glad.
Here’s what I didn’t expect:
Answering his questions made me understand my own story better. He asked how I started. What a real client relationship looks like. Whether school actually prepares you for any of this. Simple questions. But I had to think about them in a way I haven’t in a while.
Explaining your path out loud does something to it. It reminded me of getting knocked out in a soccer game once. I looked up and saw three of the same teammate staring down at me. Blurry, doubled, disorienting. And then slowly the three became one and everything came into focus. That’s what talking through your own story does. The chaos was always there. You just finally get to see it clearly.
There was also something uncomfortable about being the person he came to. I don’t have a team. I don’t have an office. I have one client, an LLC I started a few weeks ago, and a running list of things I’m still figuring out. I kept waiting for him to realize he had the wrong person.
But he didn’t need me to have it all together. He needed someone who was actually doing it. That was pretty cool.
And I am.
That’s the thing nobody tells you when you’re building while you’re still in school.
You think you have to reach some finish line before you’re worth talking to. You don’t. The people a semester ahead of you have things you need. And you have things the people behind you need. The gap doesn’t have to be big to matter.
Helping him helped me. I left that conversation more clear on why I’m doing this than I was going into it. I didn’t expect that. But I think that’s how it works. Sometimes you need someone else’s questions to hear your own answers.
If you’re in the middle of something and someone reaches out, and your calendar is full and your brain is tired and you don’t feel like an expert, give the hour anyway.
You might need it as much as they do.
Thank you so much for reading! See you next Tuesday!
— Sydney