20 Dec Meet Carah Wertheimer – Our 4th mini-scholarship winner in 2017

I definitely wasn’t expecting this.

It’s not like I haven’t been blessed with some really good juju in my life, like good parking karma, for instance. I seem to have a knack for finding the right spot at the right time, an uncanny ability to overcome crowds, congestion, construction and the opinions of everyone else in the car. When I lived back east, I used to win concert tickets off the radio all the time (of course, this was way before anyone had ever heard of Pandora). How often, though, have I wished for this same flow, grace, ease and magic to operate with equal power across all areas of my life, especially the biggies, like work?

Fast forward.

One night in August I was up late surfing the net, as I tend to do, and I still don’t know quite how it happened, but somehow I ended up at the SheSays Boulder mini-scholarship page. I looked for the fine print, but there wasn’t any. I hadn’t missed any deadlines. I didn’t need to be an undergraduate, or from a particular state, or have a particular color hair, wear a certain style of shoes or hold said political beliefs. It didn’t matter who I voted for or what bumper stickers were on my car. I just needed to be a woman in digital. Oh, and I needed to tell my story, which I could do right then and there.

Never did I imagine that I would soon be selected for this honor. After all, there are so many remarkable women out there, especially in a tech hotbed like Boulder. As a mid-life career changer into journalism, I had creeping doubts as to whether I was truly “digital enough” to apply – after all, it’s not like I’m a web designer, coder or Google exec. Right? Wrong. I would soon discover that the scholarship is about people and relationships, not bytes and pixels. It’s an orchestrated progression of many, many acts of kindness, some of them random, some of them designed with great intention and forethought.

So I took a chance and poured my heartfelt story into the blank boxes of the online application form as best I could. After some quick typing, and without much editing or review, I hit the “send” button and off went my wildest dreams, hopes and visions into cyberspace. This was not an especially easy thing for me, as a generally pretty private person, to do. But the scholarship seemed like such a great idea – women helping other women – and it was a timely opportunity to grow my skills. Boulder Digital Arts has so many offerings relevant to my work as a reporter and writer, particularly in digital communication.

I’d heard great things about the classes and instructors at this school right in my backyard that attracts students from around the country. What did I have to lose?

So I gave it everything I had and then I completely let it go, putting it out of mind and never anticipating that my journey would serve to inspire others. Don’t we all sometimes feel like our struggles and successes are insignificant in the larger scheme of things? It can seem that we have our own personal mountains to climb and private oceans to cross, like we’re the only ones going through it, day in and day out as we inhabit our hectic and heroic, yet absolutely ordinary lives.

Needless to say, I was completely taken aback and utterly delighted when I opened my inbox early one September morning, and was warmed into my day by these words:

“We love your story, heart, innovative spirit and drive to level-up your life and impact,” the as-of-yet still-unknown SheSays digital mystery women informed me.

 

Wow. I’d been selected. I guess I was digital enough after all.

The scholarship, and the opportunities that have come with it, have been a powerful affirmation of my own worth, a reminder of the good that can happen when women come together, and a potent reflection of the meaning that others found in the risks I’d taken on my unusual and somewhat rocky path.

It came at a time when I needed a boost.

In a moment when my belief in myself was wavering, my trusty SheSays advisors, Ashley Winby and Susan Trapp, held up a clearer mirror and put me in touch with their expanded vision of me as capable, empowered and fortunate, a woman with worlds of opportunity in front of her.

Being chosen signaled that the winds of my life were shifting after a challenging stretch, and in fact, the scholarship turned out to be a harbinger of many more good things to come.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for my future posts, where I’ll share more about the life-changing, up-and-down journey I’ve been on for the past two years, and how the scholarship has made a difference for me.

Thanks for reading, whoever you are and wherever you may be on your own path. Take heart. Good things can happen when you least expect it.

And, of course, a huge thank you to the savvy, supportive, creative and encouraging women who’ve come into my life as a result of this award, each inspiring in her own right: Ashley Winby, Susan Trapp, Maggie Kelly, Mandy Godown, Kecia Benvenuto and the other SheSays Boulder women I’ve been fortunate to meet.