Find Your Path
“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
This poem is permanently etched in my memory as it was read to me since early childhood by my Gramps and echoed by my mom over the years. Despite this, I focused my youth heavily on fitting in and didn’t take time to find myself. Now there were some exceptions, I joined the synchronized swim team and continued competing/coaching until just a few years ago. This is not your typical sport (go ahead and try to argue with me that it’s not a sport - you’ve been warned). When I was at home and with my family, I was weird and wonderfully openly, me. But when I left my ‘safe zone’ I reverted to keeping everyone convinced that I was ‘normal’, and that my goals/ideals matched theirs.
Onward to my university years and my self-expression abilities exploded, in the best ways possible. Knowledge was pouring in – life lessons, scholarly pursuits, you name it, I went for it. I started a synchro team because there wasn’t one. Couldn’t decide where to travel abroad (yes, I realize this is a very entitled statement – bear with me for a bit, I keep evolving) so I elected to do Semester at Sea and see the world. I fell in love and in doing so got broken, more than once. I put the pieces back together, made some friendships that now 20+ years later are stronger than ever, and I was on my way to my career goal of being a Marine Biologist and embracing the free-spirited, creative person that I really was.
Fast forward 2007 and a new outlook. Instead of swimming with the whales, saving them. Vet school here I come! But the universe had other plans and I am so glad it did. While I knew I wanted to be a mom from my youth, I had NO idea how completely heart & soul-changing this parenting journey would be. So cross Dr. Mages off the list, what now? New goal – become a veterinary nurse. Let’s do this.
Just kidding, remember all that synchro, traveling, and living? Time for a partial knee reconstruction! So, now what? How about sales? Let’s try it, and whoops, nope not a good fit. Rethink this, new goal – teaching! Fabulous, this fit, I mean REALLY fit like it was made for me, but something was missing. Ah, that’s it, I, still love being a nurse and all the medical/clinical aspects. Great, let’s work on a new role in a practice that combines BOTH – fabulous! Hang on, remember those knees? Another surgery, another reconstruction. Back to the drawing board, what am I going to do now?
Here’s the universe coming through for me again. Find my business partner, Caitlin, in a similar path turmoil, and EVT is born out of our processing this change together. A chance to combine every skill, every thread I’ve picked up in my life, and weave a beautiful new tapestry.
Amidst all these detours, I had to also do some tough self-work. Recognizing I’d held onto an image of who I should be and what I should do for so long and that it was time to let it all go (cue soundtrack). Realizing that I’d been silent or reserved on too