One day back in 2006 I was feeling really low.  Multiple events had occurred in my DC office and I was having a lot of doubts about my ability to right our course.  Jamiel arrived in our office and set a pair of clearly worn army boots on my desk and walked away. When I finally got a moment alone with him I shot him a quizzical look.  His response was simply “Kate, you’ve just gotta get through some shit. These will help. You’ll be fine.”