Today, I resigned from my position as Vice President with a company I love and a career I have spent over a decade pouring my heart into. A decision that did not come lightly, but did come with a lot of clarity.

As the mother of two young children, one of the things I teach my kids on a daily basis is that girls can do anything boys can do, and I know wholeheartedly that if I raise them to be kind and to embrace both equality and humanity, I have done my job. But even more important is to give them a sense of wonder about life and the constantly evolving adventure that makes up our time here on earth.

I remember the day my grandmother brought me outside and lifted the hood of her car and proceeded to change the oil. I was around 15 years old at the time. I watched and listened intently, not having a clue why this was happening. When she finished, she gently let down the hood, turned to me and said, “Let this be a lesson that you can do anything. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something simply because you are a girl.”

This was the woman who influenced nearly every aspect of my upbringing. From her, I learned strength and resilience and that limitations are simply faulty ideals.

I look back on several very distinct times in my life when I have wept with such pain that it rocked me to the very core. The day I learned that she and my grandfather were killed in a car accident was one of them.

That day changed everything. Today is another one of those days – a pivotal moment which will define the next chapter of my life.

When I became a mother, I knew that every decision I would make from that point forward would be weighted on doing the right thing for my family. Allowing the strength I learned decades before from my grandmother to guide me.

While the conversation to move was done so on the backdrop of a divisive political landscape, the reality was that it was much bigger than that.

We had to get really honest about how we wanted to raise our children and what values we wanted to instill in them. We wondered how we can teach them to be better than the world around them and to see the beauty of humanity and creation.

My resignation marks the beginning of our families journey to Australia, an adventure that will bring our children to my husband’s home. We leave behind a lifetime of memories, my family, our dearest friends, a piece of our hearts.

I will always stand up for what is right and sometimes doing the right thing means moving halfway across the world and affecting change where we can – in the lives of our children.

Life exists beyond politics, beyond differing opinions. There is a big world out there where people are hurting, connection is lacking, and where we tend to highlight our differences as opposed to what brings us all together. This is us focusing on what really matters, family.

And so it begins, as we pack up the life we have built here. We say goodbye to everything we have held near and dear for decades. We close the door on this chapter and set out to write a new one. One that is full of unknowns but is sure to bring adventure, challenges, laughter, tears, and everything in between.

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