The Privilege of A Lifetime is Being Who You Are.Joseph Campbell
My intention for this blog is to encourage and coach women who are in the throes of navigating crazy lives and career choices. My hope is that they begin to get comfortable with ambition and power, and stop the negative self-talk that whispers that these things are incompatible with love, children and wholeness.
During my freshman year in college, I found myself unmarried and pregnant. Having my daughter at 19 has been the defining moment of my life and it has shaped every aspect of the woman I am today. I somehow managed to graduate with my peers and twenty years later I have a great life with my husband and (now) three children.
I love to work (and work a lot) and can’t imagine not having a full professional and personal life. There’s no guilt and I am not conflicted. Perhaps that is because when you enter the professional workforce at 21, single, with a three year old, you don’t have time to contemplate whether or not you’re going to Lean In. You don’t have the luxury of considering whether you want to be a mom who balances a career or one who puts her career on hold to raise her family.There’s no incessant mental chatter about the long term impact on your child if they are the “first in and last out“of daycare. There’s no time for that. You must earn a living, provide a great life and the urgency is now. You put one foot in front of the other and you make it happen.
When I look back on the career I’ve built and the incredible bond that I have with my children, I know what’s possible. I hope you will settle in and browse the lessons learned along the way. This is the advice I often give my 20-something daughter and her friends (and the dozens of young women with whom I work).