In high school, I had this one teacher for multiple classes throughout my 4 year career. With her senior class, she would try to guess what our future career choices would be or what we would major in at college. For most people, she was fairly right. When she got to me, knowing my love of books and my essay work in her English classes, she pegged me as a an English/Lit major, potentially doing something in journalism or even a teacher myself. What she failed to notice was that I also took science classes. Of course, science classes were needed for me to obtain an Academic Honors Diploma, I could have chosen the easy route and taken FOOD science. Instead I chose to take the harder Anatomy and Physiology classes. After high school, with my RN sister’s direction, I started the nursing program at my local college and continued to live with my parents. I graduated with my Associate degree in nursing and was an RN at 20 years old..

Later that year, I also married my husband, and he returned to college himself to pursue a degree as a Pharmacist. I found myself the breadwinner of our little family that included our cat and dog and was so until he graduated with his PharmD 5 years later, the same year our son was born. In that timeframe, I also returned to grad school to obtain my Master’s degree in nursing. When I finished my degree, I then had a two year old and was 20 weeks pregnant with our daughter.

I am now 30 years old, having now been a Nurse Practitioner for about 3 years, mother of an almost 5 year old and 2 year old. I tell you that timeline for one reason: I spent my twenties working hard to build a life for my family. My husband describes me as “pragmatic”. I went to nursing school because it had a better investment than doing something more “romantic”. And while yes, I am sure I read and did creative things in my twenties, I am struggling at this moment in time to come up what those things were. As a kid I journaled, wrote stories, and wanted to be an author. I never could come up with anything that was good enough, or that I knew enough about to weave it into a story.

They say to write what you know. Maybe it has just taken me this long to figure out what I know and what message I want to share with the world. If you have followed me for any length of time on my personal Facebook, you can see me attempting to balance my professional, family, and social life and well as being vocal about my own struggles with depression and anxiety. People told me to start a blog because they loved seeing my crazy blonde kids and the antics they get into. They appreciate the approach I take to it and share the REALITY that is parenting and being a working mom. I want this blog to be about that. But I also want it to be about more than that… I want women- be they a stay at home mom, working mom, single mom, aren’t a mom… to be inspired to share the reality of their lives, and not just the highlight reel. I want us to embrace and accept our unique lives but also to know that there is community in sharing similar experiences.