Being Fearless
Let me take you back to 1957.
A 20 year old young woman has moved from far north Canada to the big city of Toronto to start her adult life as a teacher. Her parents had worried about her going to the big city but let her make her own decisions and besides one of her older sisters was living there, so what problems or change could arise?
This 20 year old woman, just happened to be my mother. Now as a young woman who had only known the far north of Canada moving to the biggest city in Canada was a huge challenge and scary. Other than her sister she knew no one, so she was able to start from scratch… she was a blank slate and could do with her life as she wanted. She teaches for a while but she wants excitement in her life.
A year later she saw an advertisement in the Toronto Star newspaper for policewomen, so what she wanted she decided, was to join the Toronto Police Force. This was certainly not something that young women back in 1957 did. It had been a male only dominated profession, but not to be deterred she applied to the Police Force. She was accepted and started her 3 months of training, one of only 4 women in the class and on the 6th of October 1958 she was sworn in as the 14th woman ever hired by the Toronto Police Force.
She was excited and nervous all at the same time, she was in a big new city and this was a huge change from teaching and the small town of Smooth Rock Falls! But she never thought about fear, change or failure, just the opposite…the excitement, the transformation and the success of a new career.
Now back then they certainly didn’t get too involved in emergency type crime or investigations. Most of their work was in uniform directing traffic or looking after young offenders (who I might add were nothing like our young offenders today!)
Mom directing traffic at Queen St W and Younge St., Toronto circa 1959
But not my mother…she had to be different and do the first undercover type of work by a woman. There was a problem with prostitution in the city and she was used as a decoy in a bar and to have men hit on her. (Looks like her work here and mine certainly didn’t put a dint in oldest profession in the world!) She also had to pretend to be drunk with another officer to get into underground clubs where illegal alcohol was being sold. (My how times have changed!)
Talk about being Fearless, she believed in herself and her abilities to carry out this type of work. I think that she got this boldness from her own mother who was fearless in her own right. As a young woman she crossed the Atlantic not once but 4 times to eventually find herself in the far north of Canada. So I’m pretty sure that I come from good genes for being fearless!
I think that at times as woman we tend to toe the line and do, what some have been taught from a young age is ‘the right thing’, whatever that means today! We tend to be the people in this world who are always the ones feeling guilty for doing what excites us, following our passion or not getting things done for others in our lives.
I look at young children and they don’t understand what fear is, they haven’t been taught it yet. So when they are learning to walk, they fall down and get back up 1000’s of times, sometimes they cry and sometimes they laugh but they always get back up until one day they are not only walking but running. We have to be more like the children we were…. FEARLESS!
I want you to really think – Can you really say you’re fearless in all parts of your life? I know I can’t but I certainly try to be. So what is holding you back? Are you afraid to take that next bold step because you may fail or is it that you think people are looking at you and wondering ‘what is she thinking?’
You know what…as much as I hate to tell you…NO ONE is looking at you! Most people are only looking at themselves!
Now when I talk about Fearlessness, I’m not talking about jumping out of a plane or bungy jumping, I’m talking about taking that chance to be fearless and go for what you want in life, taking initiative at work to climb that corporate ladder or believing in yourself and your abilities to be whoever you want to be. This to me is what being Fearless is all about.
I think that the knowledge of what my mother accomplished really rubbed off on me. I am really lucky because I have a mother who bucked the trend and instilled in me growing up that I could be anyone or do anything I wanted. Funny enough I followed her footsteps and spent 14 year as a police officer on the same force, but she also gave me the courage to change my life and move to the other side of the world!
Thanks mom xx