At my core, I’m an inner-city kid who was raised in an incredibly hard environment, but who kept her soft interior intact. Basically, I’m an m&m. LOL! All jokes aside, I say this because it took me a long time to recognize both things can be true. I can be both soft and hard. They can coexist without either part of me feeling like a fraud. It’s from this place, and through extensive inner-personal work, that I came to understand my path.

I was raised, like many, to believe hard work is the only way to get ahead. To that end, I did all the things that represented success. I got the degrees, the titles, the husband, dog and house with a picket fence. Unfortunately, none of it satisfied me. Most often, I did all these things from a place of rebellion. When my English Lit professor told me I wouldn’t get into Berkeley, it was the only school I wanted. When my mom said she would disown me if I moved away to go to Berkeley, I went. When my family didn’t like my boyfriend, I married him. All this because I wasn’t living an authentic life. I was trying to meet an ellusive criteria of success while my soul rebelled. I was constantly trying to prove something, but for what??? The only person I was fighting was myself.