The Deep end of the pool.

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When I was a kid, vacations felt magical, partly because we stayed at roadside hotels with pools—ideally, one with a diving board. We had a backyard pool, but it was only four feet deep. Some hotel pools seemed bottomless. I would jump in and sink, waiting to touch the bottom so I could push off and shoot back to the surface, and for a few seconds, it was exhilarating. Then uncertainty crept in. The bottom still had not come, my momentum was fading, and I had to decide to swim back up or hold on a little longer until my toes found solid ground. Starting a business—or, in this case, a nonprofit—can feel much the same. You trust that firm footing is close, even when you cannot yet feel it. You hold your breath a little longer, believing something great lies ahead. That is where our organization is now. Amazing things are around the corner; we simply need faith that our toes will touch bottom soon. I wonder whether anyone else has felt that same mix of excitement and doubt while deliberately sinking into the deep end. I am here to write this because I reached the bottom and propelled myself back to the surface every…single… time. Spoiler alert, you will as well.