Progress Starts with a Story

In the next twelve months, I’ll be tackling publisher-assigned tasks for my forthcoming memoir. Still a long way off, but each step adds another tiny drop into a big bucket. My advocacy work requires a different type of patience—you put in lots of effort without ever holding pages in your hand.

Here’s a confession; with both writing and advocacy, doubtful voices sometimes chatter inside my head. I wonder why I’m doing this. I wonder if it matters. Then, I tune them out and keep plugging away.

Motivated by Beliefs

Collectively, that’s what a team of passionate National Kidney Foundation advocates and I did. Year after year, we met with lawmakers to lobby for a bill to protect living donors who save lives. Lives like ours. And finally, one month ago, something tangible materialized.

Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan invited our advocacy team to a ceremonial signing at the State Capitol. Sharing kind words, the Governor looked us in the eye and shook our hands. Then his magic pen looped his cursive signature onto the bill to make it official.

Just like that, the Living Donor Protection Act became a law, prohibiting insurance discrimination against selfless heroes who give the gift of life. In that moment, it felt like all the invisible pages we’d written together became a finished book. It was a joyful, celebratory day.

Something Governor Walz said continues to boost me. “Thank you all for sharing your stories.”

Turning to my fellow advocate, I smiled and said, “That’s really all we did, isn’t it?”

She beamed brightly and nodded. “Yes. That’s what we did. We shared our stories.” 

Stories matter.

Of course, every story is not for everybody—but when the right one finds its way to the right people? Good things can happen.

That’s the truth for all our stories. We all have them and they connect us. My story is yours and your story is mine. I’m not the only one who faces uncertainty. I’m not the only one trying to wrap my head around how complicated it is to be a human and find the bright side.

If you have a story to tell, in any form, I encourage you to share it. You never know what a difference it might make. And of this I am sure—you’re the only one who can tell it. If voices of doubt creep into your head, tune them out. Keep plugging away.

That’s my plan. And after my publisher releases my memoir, Unfailing: A Memoir of Loss, Love, and Incurable Hope (August 15, 2023), it will live in the world as a companion for people who find it, relate to it, and gather hope from it. And if that happens—whoever and how many that may be—doesn’t that make it a story worth telling?