Becoming

There’s a version of you that doesn’t exist yet.

But they aren’t a hypothetical version or a fantasy. They are a real, specific version of you; they’re merely standing on the other side of a choice you haven’t made yet, waiting for you to become them.

I think about this a lot. Especially right now, as I write this on the day I fly out to Zimbabwe, knowing that when you read this, that is exactly where I will be.

Today, I get on a plane. I don’t like flying. But if you’re reading this, then it means I got on the plane anyway, because the version of me who would exist after this trip needed me to.

Let me back up. In the Fall, I decided to step away from my Board role at the shelter where I was embedded and volunteering 3-4 days/week. In December, I decided to begin transitioning out of my clinical practice and go “all in” for Fortifyu by April 10, and I began working that plan.

From December until now, I began saying tearful goodbyes to clients. I stopped volunteering every week at the animal shelter. I dove deep into data analysis and writing and submitting articles about my research for peer-review publication. And I booked a trip to the other side of the world.

That’s what becoming looks like. It’s not a single dramatic moment. It’s the accumulation of choices to stay in the discomfort long enough for it to transform you.

I’ve learned that the human-animal bond is one of the most powerful catalysts for this kind of transformation. It doesn’t just make us feel connected to animals. It makes us more human. It breaks us open with depths of empathy we didn’t know we had. It shows us suffering we can’t un-see. And then it asks us what we’re going to do about it.

Every time we answer that question with action, with courage, and with our presence even when it’s hard, we become someone new. The someone we become is a person we couldn’t have planned for or predicted, but it’s someone the past version of us made possible by refusing to quit.

I’m in Zimbabwe right now because the past version of me refused to give up on animals. And I’m in Zimbabwe right now because there is a version of me on the other side of this trip needs me to be here. I don’t know her yet. But I trust her, because every version of me that came before made the choice to keep going.

Me. ‘Becoming’ in Zimbabwe

The future you is real. They’re counting on you. On your willingness to lean into discomfort, to cross thresholds, to keep becoming even when you can’t see where it leads.

Especially in this work. Especially when the bond asks more of you than you thought you had to give.

The person who gets on the plane is never the person who comes home.

That’s not a loss. That’s the whole point.

Hear more about the topic of ‘becoming’ on the latest episode of my podcast This Too Is Rescue.

‘Becoming’ with giraffes