When I was an undergrad, the official motto of my University was Mary Oliver's quote, “tell me, what is it you plan to do with up with your one wild and precious life?”

I, of course, was in love with Oliver's work. She had visited the university a few years prior, and, starstruck, I asked one of the upperclassmen what she was like.

“She actually wasn't super nice,” he said with a shrug.

WHAT?? Not nice!? At the time, she was as good as canceled in my brain. For years, I read her work guiltily.

Haha I laugh at that now.

I have now experienced just the smallest fraction of the exposure Oliver had for her work, and I stand in awe the fact that she was able to remain herself, which allowed her to access the perspective that made her work so world changing for me.

I can spend time worrying about how I come off to everyone else, but that's a full time job, and if I do it, there will be no time for the work.