For eighteen years before my reinvention, I was a SAHM; I was focused on and fulfilled with being  a good mom and wife. Unfortunately, during those 18 years I took care of my family, I forgot to take care of myself. I neglected some important pieces of myself; pieces that made me, me. I no longer had my finger on the pulse of my heart’s desire. I didn’t take risks. I started to lose sight of who I was.

My kids were getting older and my role was changing; my kids physically needed me less. I now had time to focus on myself and look for those forgotten parts.

When I was growing up I did all the “right” things. I checked off the boxes. Graduate high school. Check. Graduate college.  Check. Meet great guy. Check. Graduate grad school. Check. Marry great guy. Check. Get a stable job that I love. Check. Have two kids. Check. Quit stable job to stay home and raise two kids. Check.  

My life was chugging along fabulously. I was a good mom. I took care of my family. Everybody was healthy. I had good friends. I was happy.

Fast forward eighteen years. Stable job, which I loved, was all but a distant memory. My family was great. Kids were great however they didn’t need me as much. They were independent and self-sufficient. My role as I knew it was becoming obsolete. Things were changing. As was I.

Gone was the comfort of knowing what my role was. But, also gone were the days of feeling like I needed to take care of everyone else first.

Enter the realization that I now had time to focus on my desires, my passions, and my dreams. I felt the clock was ticking.

The time to embrace life was now. It was time to move away from complacency and get in touch with my passions. To nurture those neglected parts of myself. To seize life in big and small ways.

I learned to discover my heart’s desire and step out of my comfort zone to capture it.

The journey of reclaiming myself really began long before this quite by accident.  My friend invited me to take a surf lesson and I said yes! At 35, I was an inland girl and mom of two kids under 8. I rarely tried anything that wasn’t in the “mom zone.”  I didn’t think surfing fell into that zone but I decided not to care. That was a decision that changed my life. That surf lesson began my love affair with surfing and the ocean. It also began to unlock the door to the place my neglected self was living.

Then another step on that journey happened in 2013. A surf sister and I, on a quest to put some excitement back into our lives, set a goal to surf every Wednesday for a year. The crazy commitment to this goal and the blog that followed helped me start to uncover my passions. It helped me reawaken myself through surfing and writing.  And by stepping outside of my comfort zone to embrace life.

Surfing helped me to be at peace with my changing role. It helped me see that there is so much more to me than being a good mom.  More desire. More creativity. More courage. More passion. More drive. More grit. And more dreams.

If you need help rediscovering yourself, sign up below for my monthly news letter.

Salty Kisses.

Karen