Fall is a time of change, with leaves beginning to turn bright shades of yellow, red, and orange; and kids heading off to another year of school, with backpacks full of fresh school supplies. It’s a time of optimism and anticipation. But for everything that begins, something else must end.
JNBA Director of Client Services, Cärin Viertel writes about the importance of reflecting during a period of transition in a phenomenal post on LinkedIn, titled “Confessions of a Working Mom as Oldest Heads to College.”
If possible, I urge you to read the entire post on LinkedIn. In the meantime, I want to share a portion of it:
I have always been a “working mom.” My identity, our family’s lifestyle, and the relationships I nurture have all been wrapped up in a choice I made nearly two decades ago. I have never regretted my decision — a career outside our home was something I dreamed about since I can remember.
My confession is that about two months ago as we approached high school graduation day, watched our oldest perform in his final concert, and attended the last sporting events, I started to doubt my choices. How did we get to senior year when yesterday I was still reading him bedtime stories? Did I miss out on moments I cannot imagine because I wouldn’t even know they existed?
I love my career. I have been beyond blessed with flexibility and support at our firm to do what I need to do as a mom and leader for the greater good of our family and team. So why these feelings now? Yes, a big life change is about to happen to our college-bound son, but it is about to happen to me, too.
What I realized is that those questions and doubts I was suddenly experiencing really weren’t about my career ambitions and choices, they were about accepting that my life was transitioning and so was my daily mom role, and maybe my identity as a “working mom,” too.
What Cärin so eloquently describes is something that so many of us and our clients go through−transition: wondering if we’ve made the right choices and if or how those choices will impact us and those we love and care about most.
The answers are different for each of us, but one thing seems to ring true for most: Transitions are a part of all of our lives, and whether painful or sublime (or both), they succeed in taking us somewhere new.
Here’s to a new season, and to new challenges, opportunities, and experiences.
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