The concept of “having it all figured out” is something of a myth, Myra Gleason said Wednesday.
“It doesn’t magically arrive when you get your diploma,” she said. ““It shows up later, after you start moving, after you take your first awkward step.”
Gleason, owner of Wild Bloom Coffee, was the keynote speaker at Wednesday’s National Honor Society Induction Ceremony for 14 Iola High School juniors and sophomores.
Also recognized were the 17 outgoing IHS seniors, who will be adorned with yellow honor cords at Saturday’s commencement exercise.
National Honor Society is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most prestigious scholastic organizations, recognizing students for their academic prowess, leadership in and out of school, service to others and their character.
“You’ve done everything right,” Gleason told the students. “You’ve shown up, you’ve worked hard and you’ve served others.”
But after they leave school, much of that infrastructure in which they’ve lived their lives goes away.
“It’s easy to think you should have it all figured out,” she said. “Let me just say, you don’t. And that’s OK.
“The people who do the most meaningful work in this world aren’t the ones who knew all along,” Gleason said. “They were the ones brave enough to move before they had all their answers.”
Gleason, who described herself as a “very curious person,” tried college for a year “and hated it.”
She eschewed the traditional college route, and instead entered the business world, first working for Bed Bath and Beyond, then eventually working with kids in foster care for a decade.
It was there she discovered a love of psychology. “But I loved music more.”
But the music world had its drawbacks, too.
“My back still hurts from sleeping in my car for four years,” she joked.
From there, she became a creative influencer and small-town barista before Gleason and husband Gabe took their biggest leap of faith, moving from California to Iola in 2022, to take over a coffee shop, despite having never visited the town before they signed the lease.
“We opened Wild Bloom with a few thousand dollars and a big leap of faith,” she said. “We didn’t have a master plan. I followed curiosity and paid attention to what gave me energy, and learned by doing.
“A lot of it was messy,” Gleason continued. “Some of it was really hard. But it shaped me.”
