The 10 Year Challenge – Meet the Gun Totin’, Political Activists Lea

Hi Friends,

Earlier today @joythewanderer and @evecab posted their 10 year challenge and I decided to jump onboard! It’s kind of fun to reminisce back to 10 years ago as I was in a pretty exciting whirlwind of different things. I honestly look back and I don’t even know how I did it all. Somehow I was doing all of these things at the exact same time:

• Campaign Manager for a State House of Representatives Race

• Store Manager of a coffee shop (working about 50 hours a week there)

• In University for about 15 credits a quarter (considered full time)

• The Chair of Budget and Finance for the Student Body at my College

Even though I look back and wonder how I didn’t go totally crazy… I have such fond memories of this period in my life.

The Power In Feeling Like You Kick Ass

I’ll dig into some fun memories from each of the topics above… but I think the reason I was able to do so much was because I was honestly kicking ass at each of them. My coffee shop was a top performer, my candidate was killing it in the election race and I had a lot of fun representing the student body. It was a surprisingly powerful feeling position. If the basketball team or the Spanish club wanted their funding – they literally had to impress me to get it because I wrote the budget. Okay I promise I’m not bragging… I’m just reflecting on how well this fits into my current view of time. Which is…

Time is measured in energy… not hours.

An hour spent doing things that fuel and excite you will leave you feeling very different than an hour spent doing something you dread. In the first example – I leave that hour feeling stoked and ready to take on the next thing. In the other example I’m ready to just Netflix and chill. This is why I really try to fill my day with as many things that spark joy as possible.

So here’s a little snapshot into a few of the things I was up to a decade ago.

Campaign Manager for State House Race

Random? Sure. To be honest… I never set out to become a campaign manager for such a high stakes race, it just kind of fell into my lap. The candidate was actually my ex and the week before his big campaign launch party (hundreds of people already RSVP’d), His campaign manager quit suddenly and let him know he had done nothing in terms of ordering food, planning the party or really doing anything except securing the venue.

He called me in a panic and asked If I would just plan this one party for him because he needed someone he could trust to actually pull this off in a week. The party ended up being such a huge fundraising success that he practically begged me to come on as his campaign manager. I know you’d think it would be weird working with your ex…but we actually made a pretty good team. I learned so much during that campaign cycle too. Everything from TV and radio advertisements, to fundraising, to coordinating volunteers, to planning events, to networking with politicians… you name it.

He was up against a 17 year incumbent and literally had no political experience… or even a college degree. The incumbent wouldn’t even acknowledge him or take him seriously because she thought it was a joke… until we beat her in the preliminaries. By then it was too late because our momentum just kept rolling all the way until election night – where we had a massive party.

Speaking of parties… yes, he was a Republican. I no longer buy into that philosophy and consider myself a libertarian/free thinker… but thought I’d get that detail out of the way.

So yeah… this is an accomplishment that I was really proud of from 10 year ago Lea. Here are a few photos.

Walking in a parade. Yep.. that’s @maryjaney on the end! I convinced her to walk with me.

Me trying to teach Mary how to wave to a crowd. LOL

Election night victory shot with the campaign team. This shot was on the front page of the paper the next day!*

Store Manager at a Coffee Shop

I promise to not write a novel on this one… but it was a lot of fun! (most of the time) Let’s face it … managing college students is kind of the pits, but our store was the top rated in terms of sales, drive through speeds, secret shopper reviews, labor cost ratios, food waste percentages and pretty much any stat the company used. It’s a local coffee chain that had about 15 stores at the time. Now I think they have closer to 30?

They really worked their managers to the bone though and heavily underpaid them. I was young… only 19/20 and so I don’t think I really realized how bad the working conditions were. You live and learn though! Now I’d demand a lot more for my time, but it was still a cool learning experience.

Me and my team from the store – out to dinner one night for team bonding!

If you have to work on Christmas Eve… you might as well dress up and make extra tips$$$

Chair of Budget and Finance for the Student Body

To be honest… I only campaigned for this position because it paid for 75% of my tuition and wasn’t that much work. I had to attend weekly student council meetings, and then I had about 1 month a year that was super busy and that’s it. Budget season is where I put my time in. I basically met with every single club and sports team so they could pitch their budget requests to me. After meeting with everyone, I would assemble a proposed budget based on who I thought was spending their money well and what would benefit the students most. I would then present my budget to the Board of Trustees for approval.

My last year as Budget Chair. This photo was taken right after the presentation to the board with the guy I was training to take my place.

Hanging with the mascot… This was actually the finance chair before me and trained me to take her spot. Awesome photo bomb too.

Wait… Where’s the Gun Totin’ Part?

So about 10 years ago is when I shot my first gun. I lived out in the county where people lived on farms, drove pickup trucks and a fun time with friends usually involved going out shooting. Here’s a couple shots from that. (pun intended)

Wasn’t kiddin’ about the whole farm thing…

My first time shooting a gun

Goin out shootin’ on the 4th of July

Almost didn’t share this one… but I did a modeling shoot for a gun company once. Here’s one of the shots.

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How Do I Feel About How My Body Has Changed?

Even though it was easier to keep a slim weight back then and I could eat as much pizza as I wanted… I actually like my body better now. I feel like the biggest difference I see is in my face. I had a rounder little baby face back then and in general, I feel like I look more confident and sure of myself now. Probably because I am. A lot has changed in the last decade, and even though I look back to 10 years ago with a sense of accomplishment… I’m even more proud of who I’ve become and the life I’ve crafted for myself.

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I Challenge You All to Join Me!

I hope this sparks more of you to do your own 10 year challenge! If you decide to post one, let me know so I can check it out! I’d love to see some throwback photos and learn more about who you were 10 years ago too.

Xo, Lea