Falling Off the Fast Track

     Last weekend I returned to my old high school for a Women's Weekend, celebrating 50 years of women attending the school and while there were fancy dinners and cocktail parties, the main focus of the weekend was discussing careers and success. I was invited to sit on a panel entitled "Women on the Fast Track" though I was pretty sure I was better suited to be on the "Women Who Recently Jumped Off the Fast Track and are Now in a Career Free Fall Wondering 'What the Hell Did I Just Do?'" panel. One panelist, when asked about dealing with setbacks in your career, gave the advice to "bloom where you're planted." I had never heard this phrase before, which is surprising, because I know all sorts of trivia and am always looking for inspiration in one-liners, and I have to say, I like it.

      No, I just don't like it, I love it. I "heart" is so much that I'm getting it tattooed on my body, written in large, black calligraphy, you know the giant letters that are so ornate, you can't even tell what they are, leaving you to rudely stare at the back of the forearms of the bike messenger in front of you online at Starbucks. No, not really, but wouldn't that be wild!?

     But seriously, I feel connected to this phrase, like its the explanation for what I have been doing for the last 4 months (really the last 2 years), the answer that I haven't been able to give when people ask, "So, what are you doing now?"

     I hope over the next few posts, I can give you some background as to who I am and what it is, exactly, that I am doing and why this quote has become my new mantra.