Since this path began back at the end of 2020, I haven’t been able to see where I’m going. Looking back each step makes sense. It's been the constant pull toward growth that has kept me going when it would be so easy to stop. 

This path has felt big, uncertain, and overwhelming at times. More than once I’ve tried to turn around and do something else only to be led right back. I’ve questioned it. Wrestled with it. I wondered if I was capable. From what I’ve learned, purpose doesn’t arrive all at once. It reveals itself slowly through the choices we make, the work we refuse to abandon and our willingness to trust the next step.

I didn’t know I would eventually share this journey. I've been living it quietly wondering why I was on this path not sure where it was leading. It became clear while preparing to do a learning interview with someone from the U.S. Navy from the Stockdale Leadership Center of Ethical Leadership back in 2023. As part of the prep, I was reading the biography of Admiral James Stockdale when I came across a promise he made to his father upon entering the Naval Academy - that he would become the best midshipman he could be.

It stopped me in my tracks.

It mirrored the personal promise I made when I was 21 years old. A promise I kept close and never told anyone about. I made the promise after a setback that nearly destroyed me and in prayer that "I would never stop working to be the best person I could be and one day when I'm a mom that I would be the best mom I could be." 

In that moment, it felt like a coincidence and at the same time something much bigger than me. A call not just to live this work for myself, but to begin sharing what I was learning with others. I had no idea it would lead to where it has up to this point. I don’t know what this journey holds but I'm learning to pay attention to what keeps showing up.

You might ask yourself:

• What keeps resurfacing in my life, even when I try to move in a different direction?
• What questions or themes do I keep coming back to?
• What would it look like to explore those things with honesty instead of resistance?

I’m still learning what this path is asking of me. I still can’t see where it's leading but I’m learning that I don’t have to. For now, I just need to pay attention, trust the next step, and fulfill the promise I made.