Reflections on 40: Entering a New Decade
As my fortieth birthday approaches (beginning of February), I continue to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going. I realized that my life has played out in interesting ways across the decades:
In my 20s: I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I wanted to do non-profit work and wanted to be part of the solution to our world’s problems, but I didn’t know exactly what or how. Toward that end, I explored a lot of areas until I refined my focus into making the Montessori approach accessible to all children and implementing it in a way that ensures equitable outcomes for all:
- AmeriCorps to recruit and train reading tutors for the public school system
- Teach For America (where I solidified my focus on public education as a vehicle for social justice)
- KIPP (where I learned that schools can address issues of poverty without waiting for poverty to be solved systemically)
- A year-long sabbatical where I learned to lean into my penchant for planning, dreaming, and scheming
- Montessori training
In my 30s: I knew what I wanted out of life, and I hunkered down to make it happen. Toward that end, I:
- Got married
- Had two children
- Built our family house
- Started Montessori For All
And so now what do my 40s have in store? I simply want to enjoy it and do it better. I don’t want to take on anything new or accomplish anything else. I simply want to focus on what I have and continue to strengthen my self so that I’m a better wife, mother, daughter, leader, colleague, and friend.
It is not lost on me that this is basically my only decade with my family at home. By the end of this decade, Henry will be 16 and Tate will be 14. I want to lean into my time with them and make the very most of it.
Fortunately, these realizations align really nicely with the intentions I have in mind for 2018!