The Superwoman Complex

We have a serious problem facing our society and it almost destroyed me personally.  We have become fixated with creating our highlight reels and not facing our life messes.  Social media has made it convenient to post our lives in the best light, and by doing so we mask our vulnerability and our need for real connection.  We display beautiful smiling faces and check into amazing vacation spots, and post our angelic children behaving well.  What we don't realize is that we are displaying a false image of our lives and someone else is judging themselves based on our posts.  Because we know the dirty secrets about our lives, we in turn, look at other highlight reels of friends and family and feel that we are less than.  We know in our heart of hearts that they do not air their dirt online either, and yes we still feel compelled to feel like our lives suck so hard compared to our friends. We put ourselves down for not posting "sweat pictures" (ladies I ...

Those in my tribe understand the irony if this title. I am not the most graceful when faced with disappointment. In fact disappointment makes me cranky at best and irate at worst. Those who have followed my doctoral journey are well aware of the grievances I have experienced with the University of Phoenix and their administrative department. The grievance began with an unresponsive chair and has now ended with a formal grievance that took 4 months to receive a response. After this lack of response, from the administration team and the grievance department, it has been determined that my complaint is unfounded and I am left funding two classes that were a waste of time  and should have been reimbursed because of an inadequate chair and a terrible for profit business model. When students become nothing more than a revenue center there is something wrong with the  system. My highest student loan  interest rate is currently at 14% which means it is cheaper to buy a house or...

If you are a parent, you know that kid. The one kid who defies his/her parents, who talks back and doesn't listen, who takes things without asking and makes messes without any desire to pick things up.  You know the kid who throws horrendous tantrums and defies everyone and everything, who interrupts when grown ups are talking.  This kid hits friends and throws things in rage. You may judge the parents thinking "why can't they control their kid", "why aren't they disciplining him/her", "they must not be good parents, my child never acts that bad".  While it is so tempting to have these thoughts, if you could really spend one day in the life of that parent, with THAT child, you may have a different perspective. I am the mother of THAT kid.  He has at least one referral a week and has been suspended four times this year.  He's 5 and in kindergarten. I get almost daily calls from his school and at home he is also hard to manage, many times b...

I haven't written much lately, mostly because the division in our country has been a bit overwhelming. I haven't written because I am saddened by the state of our human race and what we have become, but mostly I haven't written lately because there are more important things to talk about than whether a hateful man can build a wall, strip away healthcare for millions or take revert women back to oppressive times past.  What is more important is deciding who we are and who we are not, and not being swayed by media, peers, family or friends. I struggle with writing this post because it tells anyone reading exactly where I stand on controversial issues, where they may not usually be able to figure it out.  It makes me vulnerable, and may change the way some view me.  It is how I feel and where I stand, and although it is scary, it is who I am....and who I am not. I am a Christian, I believe in a God who loves me and loves us all.  I am a lover of all races, and feel th...

Have you ever seen the movie Elizabethtown? If you haven't I will wait, when you come back, you let me know......You're welcome. There is this profound line spoken in that movie.  A quote that has remained with me every single day.  We are intrepid.....we carry on.  Spoken by Sigourney Weaver there is nothing more penetrating to your soul. There is also no greater truth. No matter what happens, the poop smeared on the wall, the dirty dishes you can't quite get to, the countless heartaches, joys, troubles and precious moments....every.....single.....day.....we are intrepid and we indeed carry on. I think of another scene in my other favorite movie, Garden State, where Zach Braff is sitting on this airplane and it is crashing. As the chaos is mounting he closes his eyes and just accepts. I feel like I am Zach Braff, sitting on my airplane of life as it is crashing around me and I have no choice but to close my eyes and accept...except that I call it trust. My last post ...

This morning I woke up....... I don't ever think I've appreciated that as much as I did today.  I woke up. So did you. So did your loved ones and those they love.  We all woke up. My dear friend did not, and she never will again, not on this earth anyway. As last night and today drug on, every minute seemed like a never ending nightmare. I sat alone on my couch, for hours, just paralyzed.  I didn't turn on the TV, I just poured a glass of Bourbon and stared into darkness. For once there was not a thought in my head, not a single one, there was no sound, it should have been peaceful bliss, but this was a type of torment I have never experienced, there was nothing. No breathe, no light, no laughter, no banter there was just void. Out of this seemingly never ending silence came as crystal clear anything I have ever heard. "Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on you. "Through it all, through it all it is well. Through it all, my eyes are on you, and it is well...

I got a whole five exits from the restaurant before the tears started to involuntarily fall.  The restaurant where I had a wonderful dinner with one of my best friends for the last time for a little while.  It's fitting that the place we had our "see you later" meal was the same place where a few short months ago she told me she was moving with her family to Pittsburgh. For those who know me, you know that I am a fairly guarded person. I keep my cards close and I don't let many people in.  Most of my "friendships" are surface level and that is something that I am not proud of.  But every now and then someone breaks through, and there is risk involved in letting that occur.  In this case that risk is and was and will continue to be well worth it. On the way home I had an ironic  (ironic because of who the conversation was with) and poignant (also poignant because of who the conversation was with) conversation about the risk of letting people in.  Th...