One Year

Creating a life in alignment with my values.

Today marks one year since I left my 20-year career in banking.

I spent nearly my entire adult life in an industry that eventually became impossible for me to remain in without abandoning myself.

One year ago, I chose to follow my heart.

I had no idea what would happen next. I didn’t have every detail mapped out. I knew I wanted to build a life and body of work that actually reflected who I had become.

One year later, I can say with absolute certainty that there hasn’t been one single second that I’ve regretted my decision.

That doesn’t mean this year has been easy.

Holy shit, it hasn’t.

This has been a year of building and unraveling, creation and death, of following some dreams while watching others fall apart.

I’ve continued to build my work as an intuitive wellness practitioner. I’ve taught classes and workshops, created new offerings, written a lot, returned to school, and explored entirely new professional directions.

I’ve continued to ask myself what it actually looks like to build a life around my values rather than squeezing myself into systems that require me to abandon them.

I’ve also lived with the uncertainty that comes with choosing a path that doesn’t have a predictable paycheck or clearly marked road ahead.

There have been many moments where I had no idea what was next.

Many friendships quietly fell away or evolved.

I’ve ended relationships I treasured because love alone wasn’t enough to make them healthy or sustainable.

I’ve faced painful truths about family, belonging, attachment, abandonment, and the ways I learned long ago to maintain connection by leaving pieces of myself behind.

I’ve traveled to the roots of my adoption and touched parts of that original wound in ways I hadn’t been able to before.

I’ve grieved.

A LOT.

I’ve been learning how to stop orbiting other people.

How to stop over-functioning.

How to slow the fuck down.

How to stop pouring my life force into people, relationships, and systems that aren’t capable of meeting me where I am.

How to let other people have their experiences without making them my responsibility.

How to allow my own knowing to become the highest authority in my life.

This year has been a profound coming home.

The woman who leaped into the unknown one year ago didn’t know what would happen next, but she knew with absolute clarity that she could no longer stay where she was.

If I could sit beside her now, I don’t think I’d tell her much. I wouldn’t warn her of the heartbreak. I wouldn’t try to prepare her for the overwhelming uncertainty. I wouldn’t give her a map.

I’d simply tell her to keep going. To listen to her heart, to trust herself, and to keep following her dreams. I'd let her know how brave and supported she is.

I am so damn proud of her.

Here’s to the courage to choose what’s true and the lives waiting for us when we do.