She seemed nervous. When I asked Brynn if I could interview her, she didn’t know what for, she didn’t even know why I wanted to interview her or what it would be used for. I was nervous too. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the article and this was my first time doing a project so big. Courage was something so easily explainable and yet I had a tendency to ask the hard questions. Even though this was the case, she explained courage as understanding consequences and yet doing it anyway.
She referred to Brene Brown, a researcher who studies shame, courage, and vulnerability. Brynn said that Brene Brown defined courage as vulnerability. Courage being vulnerability can go in two different ways: one way could be physical, the one type of courage people are most familiar with, and the other is emotional. Brynn told me that with physical courage and vulnerability the only big consequence is death. With emotional courage and vulnerability, the consequence could be anything from rejection to exclusion. To her, emotional courage is harder and even though she has had more practice with it, physical courage comes more naturally to her. Before I left, she said, “I’m not a very courageous person.”
After talking with Brynn for these few minutes, I knew that I wanted to interview her more. I believed that she was courageous and I wanted to know more of why she thought she wasn’t. I quickly asked her if I could follow her around one day and ask her more questions. To my surprise, she said yes.
On the next Monday morning, I texted Brynn and told her I was coming over. She was getting ready for her swim class, the first class of the day. While walking up to campus, I asked her why she decided to take swimming. She replied saying that she is doing her fourth lazy ironman this year in preparation for a Triathalon in the summer.
Brynn explained that she believes that if you have the capability to be healthy and to exercise then you should do it. She is taking swimming because she isn’t that great of a swimmer and she wanted to learn how. We walked into the building where her swim class was. It was an area that had three swimming pools, two for laps, one for diving. The beginning class, which Brynn was in, was in one pool, the more advanced class in the other. The diving team was already in practice and were doing flips into the pool as Brynn and I walked past. I introduced myself to the teacher before class started and asked her a few questions. She noted that while there were students that are afraid when they first take the class they tend to improve and get over their fears. She loves seeing their determination.
Brynn’s classmates were curious as to why I was following Brynn around but soon got excited. “You must be important if she is writing an article on you.” They all said. Brynn shook it off and explained that she was just helping me out. I don’t think they believed her.
After her swim class, we walked over to her molecular biology class. Again, people asked her why I was there and offered what they thought about her. One of these people was Sabrina. “She always raises her hand in class and talks to the professor after if she doesn’t understand the topic,” she stated. “Every time she opens her mouth, I learn something new.”
And while I attended that class, I learned that what Sabrina said was true. Brynn raised her hand if she didn’t understand something. I would later learn after the day was done that every time she said something to me or others, I would learn something new.
I learned that her family moved around a lot when she was younger. That she doesn’t see this as a bad thing but now she gets antsy whenever she is in one place for too long. I learned that she started learning the piano when she was eight. She started learning because of her sister but when she was twelve, her teacher moved her from learning books to classical music and gave her a passion for it.
Her teacher was Russian and believed in what Brynn could do. Her teacher used to teach her not to get distracted while playing by letting her dogs run around Brynn’s feet and throwing stuff animals at her. All of this hard work paid off when she played for an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day saints, Elder Neil A. Anderson. Although she doesn’t play as much anymore, she won’t hesitate to say yes when asked to play. And that is what I saw. In her church class, a student asked her to play and she said yes.
Brynn also recently changed her major. She used to want to do molecular biology but changed to environmental science. She even joined a group that tries to improve the environment in their community. Brynn told me that she had a meeting with this group later in the day. She said that she volunteered to lead the discussion and while she didn’t know a whole lot about environmental science, she made a commitment and she was going to follow through with it.
The discussion was almost like teaching. In her church, she is a Sunday school teacher. I asked her if she feels more comfortable doing this discussion because of her experience. It was a tiny bit like teaching and because of that, she was more comfortable.
We walked into a board room and sat down in comfortable leather chairs. The professor started the class and Brynn took over with her discussion topic: teaching kids to be more environmentally friendly in school. I knew that Brynn had a knack for helping the environment. In her apartment complex, she was trying to put together a group that would take people’s recycling since the complex didn’t have a recycling bin.
She seemed confident and relaxed while asking questions and receiving answers. Plenty of remarks were made and she took note of everyone. She seemed like she had been doing this professionally. After it was over, Brynn and I talked a bit about it and said goodbye. I left knowing with a surety that she was the most courageous person I had ever met.
At the end of the week, I called some of her classmates and asked them if they thought Brynn was courageous. Sabrina told me of when she was walking to their shared molecular biology class. She told me that Brynn noticed that a girl’s car had broken down and was struggling to get it to a parking lot. Brynn then went over to this girl and helped push her car. Sabrina said that not only did Brynn have the courage to ask that girl if she was okay, but she also had the courage to ask if she could help, even if she was late to her next class.
Rachel, another classmate of Brynn’s, said, “[Brynn] has no reservations” She doesn’t let anything hold her back. She does what she wants to do.”
Devri, Brynn’s neighbor, told me that when she first met Brynn she was open to talking to her and was always friendly to anyone. She said that Brynn makes you feel valued. Sabrina finished her thoughts by saying, “The essence of courage is to act in spite of fear. Not fearless but putting aside fear and personal interest to do something. I think that Brynn is someone who does that. She has the courage to act even if she is scared.”
Brynn and I talked more about her not feeling courageous. She doesn’t think that she will ever be the most courageous person because she would never cut God out of what she does because he helps her in all things. She said, “I’m not the MOST courageous person but I’m working on it. I’m trying to be.”
