Another friendship brought about by seredipity and shared body image issues.

MaryEllen and I went to the same college. We had/have a mutual friend who was very close to the both of us individually, we were in several classes together and were even in the same group for our senior capping project! To say we “crossed paths” would be an understatement.

In the final days of senior year we stood in my kitchen engaging in a great conversation. I left thinking, "darn, if I had only talked more with her sooner."

Cut to now (3 years later) - several months ago our mutual friend said, "hey you should have MaryEllen on your podcast." I was too shy and depressed to reach out.

Several months later, without even the prompting of our mutual friend, MaryEllen reached out to me. Yup, God rolled His eyes at me, "fine if you won't do it, I will prompt MaryEllen to do it."

Of course she listened, as I learned in part one of our conversation MaryEllen often listens to God's promptings and it is a big reason why she was able to leave her Biology degree in a frame on the wall and pick up her career as an artist and illustrator.

Inspired and motivated to be a better version of myself, that is how I leave a conversation with MaryEllen and I hope it's how you feel after listening to our conversation.