#419: SPOTLIGHT: Regina Harmon
#419: Regina Harmon
March 4, 2025
A Backbeat of Community
Question for Regina:
What is one significant and lousy decision you made that accidentally resulted in some positive indirect outcomes?
Regina's Response:
Author’s note: When I was asked to respond to this writing prompt, I unconsciously swapped the original adjective “lousy,” with dumb. I understand the two words are very distinct and for me, dumb was the word that I would use.
When I was in my senior year of high school, my friends and I concocted what I now describe as a really dumb decision. At my house, after years of growing up in an untenable and unhealthy controlling dynamic, the pressure became so enormous I had to do what I never thought was an option: I began to tell my friends what my home life was like. My friends, many of whom I had known since middle school intuitively knew something wasn’t “right,” for me from their child perspectives. We all knew something wasn’t right.
So, with my small group of friends alerted to the pressure at my house, we came up with our life-saving and very, very dumb plan. We all knew a moment was coming when I would have to leave my house, and probably quite suddenly.
The plan was before that time came, five of my friends would talk to their parents about their friend Regina, a name they had heard over the years. I was a friend at school but not a friend who participated in drama club, after school hang outs and birthday parties. They would explain to their parents that I had left my house for my own well-being and that I would need to stay with them for a short unknown period of time. And that I would rotate between the houses like an extended sleepover. That was the plan. And each set of five parents said yes.
I will say, I made it to the second house in my rotation, to the home of Fred and Michelle Merrill and they, with all the love and safely I needed told me the plan was the dumbest plan they had ever heard and I was not going anywhere, I was going to stay with them for as long as I needed. And I did, and it was the best, dumbest decision I ever made and allowed me to continue to unfurl into the person I am today.
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I suspect Regina would love all direct responses from you. I find it incredibly encouraging when I hear from any of you after I share my thoughts. It is powerful for me. I assume many others have a similar experience. So here is Regina's email… pip