I am thrilled to share that Shoshana Johnson will be joining us at ChoiceCenter on Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. to share and sign her new book from Simon and Schuster called "I'm Still Standing."
Shoshana is a graduate of ChoiceCenter's LV77 – one of the first people I enrolled and wanted to share this coursework with when I was in Leaderhsip in LV74. So the fact that she's a graduate and a good friend of mine makes her appearance extra special for me.
I met Shoshana on September 13, 2003, just months after she was rescued by U.S. Marines in Operation Iraqi Freedom. On March 23 of that year, she was on deployment with the Army, serving as a Food Service Specialist when her convoy was ambushed in the city of an-Nasiriyah.
Shoshana was shot in both ankles, and captured and taken as a Prisoner of War with 5 other members of the 507th Maintenance Company. 22 days later, Marines conducted house raids in the city of Samarra, Iraq, and successfully rescued Shoshana and the five other men.
We look back at how we met and both just feel like fate intervened in its mysterious way. Of all places to cross paths, we met at a DeLaHoya fight at MGM Grand. Executives are often asked to provide additional security support at high-profile events, and I was working the door at our VIP party when Shoshana's father came up and asked me for assistance. He said his daughter was in a wheelchair and needed to change and the bathrooms were overcrowded. He wondered if there was a quieter place with less traffic for her to go.
I took them to the back offices of the Grand Garden Arena and when she emerged, Shoshana was wearing a perfectly pressed, olive green uniform with lots of brass bling. I remember being amazed at how polished she looked. I escorted her family to an usher who took them to their seats, then returned to my VIP post where I could watch the fight on a monitor.
As the announcer called for the crowd to stand for the National Anthem, he requested everyone rise to honor America's First Black Female Prisoner of War. I remember my eyes getting wider, realizing this was the woman I had wheeled behind pipe and drape just minutes earlier.
I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in being an American. It's one of those deep patriotic moments you never forget, like the first (or 50th) time I heard the National Anthem being sung before a crowd of 80,000 at Candlestick Park to start a 49er game, or put my hat over my heart in Yankee Stadium as the Blue Angels flew over to kick-off the World Series in October 2001. It just touches you at your core, and you can feel your gratitude for the freedom we enjoy manifest in the corner of your eyes.
In that moment, I was honored to have connected with this hero in a small way, and never imagined we would form a friendship that would deepen the next seven and a half years. I didn't expect to see her again, but then her father stopped me as they were coming out of the fight. They were invited to attend the HBO after party at FiAMMA and wondered if I would provide directions.
I think all Shoshana and I talked about were boys on the "ride" to the restaurant, but something in that conversation clicked for us – one of those moments when you know you've found a kindred soul that will be with you on life's journey for a long, long time. I won't bore you with the rest of the story, but Shoshana invited me to dinner with her family the next evening and the rest is history.
We've been good friends ever since, and it's been extraordinary to watch her blossom - first from wheelchair to fully-upright club dancer as she recovered from her bullet wounds, and then from wallflower to advocate – the voice of our veterans who serves on Congressional Committees to ensure quality medical care for those injured in the line of duty.
What I love about Shoshana is that she is an American hero while simultaneously being Every Woman. She serves on Special Olympics committees and gets honored as a Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year while being a phenomenal single mom on the dating scene who attends culinary school every day to fulfill her dream to be a pastry chef. She fits in speaking engagements around the country with her Larry King, CNN and MSNBC regular appearances as a military commentator while volunteering to be the chauffeur for her mom's sisters and cousins at their family reunion.
Shoshana is just one of those beautiful people that something extraordinary happened to for a reason – because she is a light that can illuminate a bigger world for those who come behind her. When you read her book, you'll understand what I mean. She's just your average girl, who has taken what life has handed her, and allowed those circumstances to call her forth to a larger, world mission. She goes about her work as an advocate for soldiers quietly, but always while sharing a smile that is as big as her heart.
I can't wait for you to meet her and to spend an evening getting to know her at the signing for "I'm Still Standing." (You can watch a video preview by clicking here.) And it's just not me who has been bragging about this book since she sent me a type-written copy to edit and comment on a few years ago, but the NAACP has nominated her for an Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the Biography category.
She is competing against Nelson Mandela, Condoleezza Rice, Jay-Z and Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. The awards ceremony will be held March 4, 2011, in Los Angeles. (Watch for our girl in a stunning black dress she just ordered on the internet!)
Shoshana has been kind enough to share her life with me for more than 7 years, and I am excited to share her with all of you on March 15. Don't miss your opportunity to join us that evening. I promise you, too, will experience that pride in being an American in a new way by the end of the night.
See you there!
Corrine
