Excited, nervous, petrified. Those were the emotions I was going through as I walked into the WUSA TV 9 studio on Monday morning, December 22, 2008. I was scheduled to be interviewed on live TV for the very first time and I was doing my best to hold it together, but feeling very much like Alice in Wonderland. I was escorted back to meet the Producer, the lovely Janet Terry, and as I reached out to shake her hand, she exclaimed “Uh Oh! You are supposed to be here tomorrow.”
I was so embarrassed. How could I have made such a mistake? I felt like a balloon deflating and my first reaction – what I would have done back in the old days – was to turn tail and run. I wanted to go hide and lick my wounds, but deep down I said NO! and I started silently singing “I trust that everything comes to me Perfectly.”
So I smiled and said, OK, I’ll come back tomorrow. They invited me to hang around and watch the show anyway and it was an amazing and really beneficial experience. I got to meet Howard Bernstein, who would be interviewing me, and chat a bit with him behind the scenes. He made me feel very comfortable and I was able to actually BE Alice in Wonderland in the TV studio without having to worry about my interview.
It turned out to be a very valuable experience and I felt a renewed sense of excitement with a little less nervousness as I was escorted into the studio on Tuesday morning. As I reached out to shake Janet’s hand a second time, I jokingly asked her if I really was scheduled for today. She replied “Well, yes and no.” Turns out there was a gigantic water main break in Washington DC that morning, and people were having to be air lifted from their cars by helicopter. It was a totally different atmosphere in the studio as people were being rescued and thank God no one was seriously injured.
They invited me to stick around just in case, so I got to be a behind the scenes witness to a breaking national news story. I got to meet Andrea Roane and Angie Goff as well. Not at all what I had expected, but it was all very exciting and even though I did not go on, I really felt that it was all happening the way it was supposed to.
So, Wednesday morning I arrived back in the studio, and by now they knew me by name. Howard Bernstein yelled, “Debbie, you came back – today’s the day!” I was still a bit nervous as the time came for the interview, but much less so than I would have been on Monday. It went off without a hitch, and Howard even made me sing “Attitude of Gratitude” acapella and it was in tune!!! I would definitely not have been able to do that on Monday.
It was a wonderful, fantastic experience and I want to thank everyone at WUSA TV 9, especially Howard Bernstein, for making me feel so comfortable giving me such a exciting, fun memory. Hope I can do it again sometime.
The moral of the story is that we don’t always get what we want when we want it, sometimes we get something even better Here is a gift for you so you remember that everything comes “Perfectly”
Here is a gift for you so you remember that everything comes “Perfectly”
