I am a perpetual new kid. My dad’s job kept my family moving often, and by 9th grade, I had attended 10 different schools. Even in my adult life, I’ve never lived anywhere for more than 3-4 years. I was an outgoing kid, always ready to show off and be seen, but I did it all from a careful place. Be interesting, but not too different. Get involved in lots of activities and hobbies whether you like them or not, because that’s how you make friends.

Once I grew up, all of the constant new beginnings left me restless and uncertain of who I was or what I wanted. But I knew that I wanted to challenge myself, so after college I joined the army. I picked the most interesting job they offered me: Explosive Ordnance Disposal. I spent five years on the army Bomb Squad. I traveled, I blew things up, I even won Soldier of the Year for US Army Europe. I also met and married another soldier, then left the service when my first child was born. I worked as a newspaper columnist and freelance writer until I had my second child.

Over time, I found myself in a very unhappy marriage and my boldness began to wither away. I lost my willingness to challenge myself. I put all my energy into struggling to deal with my difficult relationship and the endless months of military deployments. Any creativity that I had left went into home schooling my children and blogging about my knitting projects. As the kids got older, I began to work remotely as a financial administrator. Processing paperwork didn’t help my creative flow much.

I finally reached a point where I felt so empty and so disconnected from myself that it seemed my only choice was to start over. I didn’t know who I was anymore, but I knew I had to find out. Finally, after 20 years of marriage, I lit a match to everything and let the flames light my way. I moved to Nashville, started working full time at the office, and began the process of getting to know myself anew.

I channeled my new kid self once again but this time I wasn’t worried about being too different. In fact, I decided to embrace it. In 2016, a friend asked me along for moral support while she tried something new – burlesque classes. I’ve never been much of a dancer and the first class started out so awkward and uncomfortable that I wanted to run away. But then just at the end, it was sort of fun. So I went back and kept going. It was an opportunity to connect with my body and to express myself in a completely different way than I’d ever tried before. I made friends in the classes and found inspiration in the diverse community. One of my instructors used the phrase “Dare to be seen.” and it resonated so loudly with me that I had to take it to heart. I was still figuring out who I was, but I realized that was never going to end and I wasn’t going to let that stop me from showing up. After nearly a year of classes, I gave myself the biggest challenge: to present an act on stage in front of an audience of paying strangers.

Burlesque had unlocked my audacious energy again, but my day job of spreadsheets and invoices was killing it at the same time. I decided to become a life coach in no small part to figure out my own life. One thing that became very clear to me is that I truly believe that there’s a unique greatness in everyone that the world needs to see. I want to help people do the thing that they are excited to dream of doing. In 2019, I left the corporate world for good and now I’m a full time certified life coach and occasional burlesque performer.