Walk Jenny's Messy Trail
The old blog is the evidence: a real Traveler learning, experimenting, changing, and Becoming over time.
Walk the Messy TrailJenny + Sassy photo coming soon. Jenny has apparently agreed to come out of the bushes long enough to take one.
Meet a Fellow Traveler
Jenny
Apparently she works here too.
Jenny did not particularly plan to become a character in the Sassiverse.
She was much more comfortable building things behind the scenes, leaving stories along the trail, occasionally waving at someone, and then retreating safely into the bushes.
This is, apparently, progress.
The Messy Trail
I Was Becoming Out Loud for the World to See.
Long before there was a Sassiverse, Jenny was writing.
She wrote about things she was learning. Things she believed. Things she was struggling with. Things she tried. Things she hoped might help somebody else.
And the trail is messy.
There are things on it Jenny still believes deeply. There are things she would say very differently now. There are places where she was genuinely trying to help people but had not yet discovered the difference between offering someone a possibility and talking at them.
There are ideas that changed because Jenny changed.
She almost deleted the whole thing three times.
Once, she actually tried.
She missed the button.
Thank goodness.
Before You Follow the Footprints
Please Walk This Trail Kindly.
Not because you have to agree with Past Jenny.
You absolutely do not.
The old trail is not here as a collection of instructions. It is here because Jenny eventually realized that the mess might be one of the most useful things about it.
People Become.
Past Jenny was working with the experiences she had, the information she knew, the language she had, and the view from where she was standing.
Then she kept walking.
She learned things. She experienced things. She found new words. She changed her mind. She tried again.
And she is still doing all of those things.
Someone else may be standing today where Jenny once stood.
We do not know what they have not experienced yet. We do not know what language they have not found. We do not know what they are trying to understand.
Empathy does not require agreement, access, reconciliation, or taking responsibility for somebody else's Becoming. It can simply leave room for the possibility that where a person is standing today may not be where they stand forever.
An Old Story
“That's Just Who You Are.”
Jenny grew up believing some things about herself were simply settled.
She was shy.
That's just who she was.
And somehow the woman who still carried that story would eventually wander around in purple-and-gold Vikings glitter shoes, leopard-print pants, and pink, purple, and blue hair.
Still shy.
Also... apparently all of that.
The important discovery was not that Jenny needed to stop being shy.
Shy did not have to decide everything Jenny was allowed to become.
Little Jenny did not know that yet.
Little Jenny needed to know there was a choice.
Then an Old Story Got Caught in the Act
“I Don't See That.”
Years later, Jenny had taken a team-lead position at work.
She had a conflict with a coworker and immediately went to her boss. She needed him to meet with both of them, she explained, because:
“I have the worst conflict-resolution skills.”
Her boss's response was simple.
“I don't see that.”
Wait.
Jenny had spent years intentionally working on communication and conflict-resolution skills. Her bosses had recognized those skills. Her teammates had recognized them. She had successfully navigated difficult conversations and challenging personalities.
The facts were sitting there.
But when Jenny became activated, an old story got there first:
I don't have those skills.
Her boss had not just given her conflict-resolution skills. He had helped her notice something much stranger:
The story Jenny was telling about herself had not kept up with the person she had been becoming.
A Question Worth Keeping
Check the Facts.
What do I actually know?
What evidence do I have?
Is this something that is true about me now?
Or is this an old story that has been repeated for so long that I stopped checking whether it still fits?
Jenny eventually encountered ideas about fixed and growth mindset that gave her more language for experiences like these.
And that was another wait... WHAT? moment.
She had thought she understood the idea.
She did not.
There was much more there for her to discover. That story gets its own trail eventually.
Has the story you tell about yourself kept up with the person you've been becoming?
You do not need Jenny's answer.
You get to check your own facts.
An Extremely Important Field Note
Please Don't Do What I Do.
Seriously.
Jenny's trail is not here so Travelers can reproduce it.
Some of those footsteps are questionable.
They are here because sometimes seeing another human being figuring things out can provide a little borrowed belief:
Maybe I can figure things out too.
You may read something and think:
- I would have done that too.
- I've been there.
- Nope. That would never work for me.
- Oh, Jenny. Absolutely not.
- Mine looks completely different.
- Wait. That gives me an idea.
Every one of those can be useful.
Take an ingredient. Change it. Combine it with something you have already discovered. Leave it behind. Discover something Jenny never did.
Your process belongs to you.
No Finish Line
Jenny Isn't Writing from the End of the Trail.
There isn't one.
She's still learning. Still finding words. Still changing her mind. Still discovering that some stories she has carried for decades might deserve another look.
Still getting things wrong.
Still trying again.
Still Becoming.
And occasionally...
still running back into the bushes.
Two Trails from Here
Wander On.
You can wander through Jenny's real messy trail or meet the much more publicly enthusiastic member of this operation.
Meet Sassy
Sassy has considerably fewer reservations about being a Sassiverse character.
Meet Sassy