What Amanda Gorman Has to Teach Us About Fear

Like many people, I found Amanda Gorman’s poem at the 2020 U.S. Presidential Inauguration to be absolutely stunning. Her presence, poise and the words themselves, all at the age of 23, took my breath away.

I even included a line from the poem, The Hill We Climb in the Author’s Note of my book, The Joy of Thriving While Black:

“The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if we’re only brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”

One year later, on January 20, 2022, the New York Times published her essay about how afraid she was that day. She was, after all, appearing on this national stage just fourteen days after the January 6th riots.

Her decision to read the poem came down to this: “What stood out most of all was the worry that I’d spend the rest of my life wondering what this poem could have achieved.”

She also shared, “I look at fear not as cowardice but as a call forward, a summons to fight for what we hold dear.”

What are you being summoned to do? How can you move towards it, even if you are still a little afraid?

I don't know what your answer is, but I guarantee you there is beauty in pursuing the answer.