#2: What is Your Greatest Fear?

It took me three days to compose my thoughts on this question. Telling the whole world what your greatest fear it opens you up a great vulnerability. I have decided that I'd rather be authentic and open.

My greatest fear is rejection. I like putting myself forward to do things and serve others. However, I am constantly afraid of being rejected, mocked, laughed at, or told to shut up and sit down. When I don't get the result I'm hoping for, I feel like a failure and that nobody wants to work with me. I know this is not true and only my stubbornness and tenacity keeps me from shutting down and becoming a hermit.

This past January I decided to make myself a vision board. This was to help me visualize what I wanted to accomplish this year. One of the things I recognized that I needed to overcome was my fear of failure and, most of all, rejection. I need to continue to put myself out there and just learn to deal with the haters and nay-sayers. I know I'm not perfect. Others can point that out if they like, but I'm still going to work to make my voice heard and strive to help others.

As you can see from my vision board, board gaming is important to me. I want to serve others by helping to diversify my local gaming community and the gaming community overall. I am working on this in two ways.

The first is my podcast, Our Turn! Gaming for Everyone. On this show, we talk about games and inclusivity. Games aren't just for upper-middle-class white guys. They are for everyone who likes to play them. Not all games are for all people, but gaming is available for everyone to enjoy.

The second way is through the nonprofit organization I started with the help of my friends called Your Turn Community Events. This is our effort to get women, people of color, and people from the LGBTQIA community involved in tabletop gaming. This includes board and card games and role-playing games. We are just getting started in this effort and have some big news coming soon.

Both of these efforts get me excited and help me overcome my fear of rejection. I just have to keep moving forward and not let the fear of failure and rejection stop me in my tracks.