Motherhood and Choices

“...human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but...life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”  

~Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This quote struck a chord with me today, as I've been thinking a lot about change, as well as mothers and what an influence they have over our lives. (Well, technically of course the quote didn't literally strike a chord...wow, if you think about it too hard, the English language can be strange sometimes, can't it?)



It's true, though, we spend our whole lives reinventing ourselves. I mean, I'm only 38 (only - ha!) and so far, I've already had two different careers (theatre & finance), am about to start a third (motherhood - yikes!)...and who knows what'll happen next. That's not even mentioning life-changes, of which there have been many (and likely will be many more). Change is ever-present, and I guess I must somehow be comforted by that, or I would have made plenty of different decisions throughout my life (moving to NYC at 23 years old -- with only two suitcases, $1,000 in the bank, and a promise I could sleep on a friend's couch -- springs to mind). 

How important is college?

Today, I thought I'd share with you a recent article by Michael Lind, posted on salon.com, which focuses on economics/education and how the measure of success has changed over the years. Interestingly, this subject has been a hot topic of discussion among my mom-friends (and soon-to-be-mom friends) lately as well. I'm curious to hear what you think.

There was never a question in my mind whether I would go to college, only how I was going to pay for it and what I would study. At 17, when I graduated high school, I had no answer for either...but I was lucky enough to get a scholarship and started taking liberal arts courses anyway.

Although I certainly don't regret graduating from college, I can't imagine my BFA in musical theatre had much effect on the advancement of my Wall Street career. I will, however, acknowledge that had I not received a diploma, it likely would have been difficult to get in the door of financial institutions and ultimately become a supervisory analyst. So having the degree did give me options I might not have had otherwise.

Books, books everywhere...and not a thing to read!

When I was little, my mom used to take me to the library about once a week and let me check out anything I wanted. The rule was that I could take as many books home as I was old (ie, 10 books when I was 10 years old, etc). The times I spent in that library are some of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood...mostly, I remember walking through the doors as we were leaving, trying my best to balance all those books in my arms, so impatient that I'd already started on the first one before my mom could get the engine running in her Oldsmobile station wagon. 

Changing priorities - an introduction

Welcome to Baby Steps Forward, we're so happy to have you here! Well, I'm happy anyway, because otherwise this whole blog thing would be an exercise in futility. I'm not sure who else will be happy, but if they are...then, great!

For those of you who don't know me (yet), I recently switched gears after 12 years on Wall Street, where most recently I was a Supervisory Analyst/Editor, embarking upon what I hope will be a fairly exciting journey...I'm going to be a mom for the first time, at 38 years old. In November. Well, we hope it's November...I mean, if she waits until December, I might just lose my mind! And yes, you read correctly, we're having a girl. (I can say "we" in that case, because my husband was definitely involved in that one!)