what I do

Well, it didn’t happen.

I was the first in my immediate family to earn a Ph.D. But, I didn’t have a throng of job offers in my lap. In fact, for over a year, I didn’t have a full-time job.

Also, I my network had shrunk to include mostly people in the Academia, ones with PhDs or ones striving for one.

I felt so alone and misunderstood at that point in my life. And really jaded by all the expectations and advice.

I began doubting myself and questioning my abilities. I felt misunderstood and judged by others, wondering if they even saw me for who I really was.

But then again, I didn’t even know who I was. It was such a low point for me and reminded me of the many times I had felt unseen or misunderstood throughout my life.

I had to change something if I was to continue on and find a way out of my hole. I had to find out who I really was and start dreaming about what I wanted in life, not what I thought other people wanted me to do so I could get their approval. 

And that was a pivotal point where my whole learning and self-discovery process started.

How many times have you done something because you were told to?

Or because you thought it would lead to approval from others?

And how did those moments get you closer to what YOU really wanted?

Chances are, they didn’t get you very far.

I’ve seen over and again how our society conditions us to operate in boxes of what’s acceptable and based on the standards that may or may not apply to you. It limits your ability to discover what standards you want to create that will best support you going after your big dreams.

And if you’re like me, you risk walking a path for years that’s not of your design, only to find it leads to a dead end.

I found light and You can too

Rather than follow the blueprint that says get a good education and job and everything else will fall into place, get curious about what you want your unique blueprint to look like.

Discover what lights you up and follow those creative impulses.

Your life is your responsibility to live according to your design, not someone else’s.

And when you forge your own path of discovering what lights you up the most and how you can make a career out of it, that’s when you figure out who you are and find your true source of happiness.

It wasn’t until I started working with undergrad students to prepare them for grad school and beyond that I saw how they were so unsure about everything. Like me, they struggled to know what they wanted that was independent of what they thought others wanted them to be.

After our work together, their confidence soared. Their research and writings skills improved. I saw so many of them go on to colleges of their choices.

I saw firsthand how I could make a positive change with others and that’s what’s fueled me since.

I am championing a new way forward for youths and young at hearts that allows them to forge their own path forward based on what naturally motivates and inspires them, not based on what they’re told to do.

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