Diploma in hand you have launched into the “real world.”  Maybe you are freshly immersed in your first job.  Maybe you are living at home, looking for the employment opportunity that feels right.  Perhaps you are in a new city, trying to figure it all out.  Maybe you have decided to opt out of a serious profession altogether, and you are taking some time to figure out what’s next.  Maybe you don’t have that college diploma, and you don’t want it anyway!  No matter the circumstance, if you are twenty-something years old, chances are - it isn’t easy.   Being an “adult,” it turns out, is quite hard.

Nothing like a “career launch” party to motivate me to get my elevator pitch in order.  Below are my remarks to a group of 60 women at a career launch party I co-hosted with two dear friends.  This long-anticipated event was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to boost my confidence and get me comfortable with talking about myself, what I do and why I do it!  Sometimes you just have to put yourself out there, speak about what is in your heart and cross your fingers…

Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday. Togetherness and warmth around the table. Long grocery lists, college football, crisp cool days, last minute trips to the market. Kids home from college. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come to town. Tables are set. Turkeys are brined.

You Can Do Hard Stuff. I say this to my teenagers all the time. Sign up for that honors pre-calculus class! Go on that backpacking trip in the Rockies! Wake up at 5am and re-read that term paper! You Can Do Hard Stuff. What made me such an expert?

The air is thin. Hot. Dusty. Above 10,000 ft my oxygen deprived, drunken mind wanders. It tells me to keep walking. Keep. Going. Up. I am high in the Sierras. I have never been more miserable and I have never been happier.