This Friday afternoon, as I sat in my hot, stuffy office cubicle, I yearned for a bit of joy. So, I logged into Facebook to live vicariously through my friends’ status updates for a few moments. As I started to peruse the news feed, I came across this post from my friend, Tim Fealy:

NEEDED.. 1 or 2 attractive friends (man or woman but size small or medium) to model a “boot camp” shirt by the military tank this afternoon. Msg me if you are able to. Shirts provided. And I can pay you with a shirt. Thank you.

First, I thought to myself, “You can do this”. Then I wondered if Tim would be willing to trade the free t-shirt for a service donation to my marathon charity (Opportunity Enterprises—OE for short) instead. (FYI, a service donation is an exchange of one person’s time for another person’s donation to a charity.)

I messaged this to Tim: “I can help. I get out of work at 5pm. I work right at the intersection of Taft and Route 30 so I’m close by.”

Tim messaged me back with instructions on where the set for the photo shoot was. I was excited! A model? Me? Who knew?

I reviewed my self-doubts noticing one particular doubt I’ve always struggled with—my non-model body. Let’s face it—being 5 feet tall with an athletic, curvy build isn’t what usually graces the front page of magazines. Instead of having a sinewy Kate Moss-like body, I am built more like Olympic gold medalist, Shawn Johnson. I convinced myself that being built like an athlete wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at all for modeling at a fitness-related photo shoot. I was going to be photographed for a race called Beast Boot Camp 5K. Perhaps I could model fitness. Perhaps my strength would come across in the photos.

When I showed up on set, I found a tiny Sara looking up at this giant military war tank:

Photo taken by http://posttrib.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/index.html?story=8977789

By the way, funny tidbit, those Christmas lights are still on that pine tree to the left of the tank. You can see them clearly in the daylight!

Once I put on the Beast Boot Camp 5K t-shirt, I got it in my head that I should climb on top of the tank. Despite my flip-flops not making the climb an easy accomplishment, with a helpful hand from Tim I managed to monkey-climb my way up to the first level of the the tank and eventually climbed to the second, upper part of the tank. Once on top of the tank I found I had to relax and breathe to calm my initial fear of heights. After a few breaths I was able to weave my way around the tank to pose for photos like a spider on a web. Once Tim started taking pictures I found I’d left my fear of heights in the lost-and-not-wanted-anymore bin, at least for now. I felt so free on top of that army tank modeling a camouflage Beast Boot Camp 5K t-shirt.

I took an assisted lift from Tim to get down from my jungle gym in the clouds that I’d found. I posed for a few pictures on the ground next to the tank and then—the photo shoot was over…

So now what?

Tea with the photographer is what! In exchange for helping out my friend Tim I received the offer of tea and conversation with a friend at Sip Coffee House in Crown Point, Indiana.

I never got to ask Tim about a service donation to my marathon charity. I also hadn’t seen—and still haven’t seen—the photos that he took of me atop of and next to the tank. We sat in comfy chairs at Sip, had tea and a hot cocoa and chatted. Tim gave me some much appreciated advice about my blog—to write more frequently.

I’m so glad I answered Tim’s Facebook ad. I got to be a model and a friend tonight by taking a leap of faith and answering an ad I found on Facebook for a MODEL NEEDED.

Peace,
Sara