About pages are weird.

A bit more about me…

I used to think there was something seriously wrong with me. Why couldn’t I sit still in the neat little boxes that were built for me? I was a bossy kid. Big questions. Often too big for my britches. Somewhere along the way, I lost that part of myself. I did all the next-expected things, and (on paper) everything looked just as it should be.

My first child was born. A daughter, Annika. I became a mom and that long-expected role was different than I thought it would be. Not bad, just different. Then my second daughter was born.

And then the doctors told us that our first daughter was going to die in her mid-teens.

Life halted. All the normal things I expected were obliterated in a moment. For the next 11 years, I watched my amazing child steadily lose every skill she had gained. Talking in her husky little voice, walking and running, eating all the things…all those skills disappeared little by little. We managed seizures, surgeries, and specialists, knowing that there was nothing we could do to slow down or fix the degenerative, rare disease that was damaging her body and brain.

She died in December of 2022 at 14.

The experience of being Anni’s mom changed me forever. Her short life made me think about my short life in a more expansive way. What is really important? What does it mean to live life to the fullest? What does it mean to love wholeheartedly? What does it mean for me to love myself?

So here we are. You and me. You’re here, on this planet, and on this webpage for a reason. Maybe you are wondering how to keep moving forward when life seems bleak. Maybe you are trying to figure out how to keep fighting for joy when life looks different than you thought it would. Maybe you’re doing great, but know that life has a way of throwing curveballs and you want to be prepared.

I’m glad you’re here. I may not have the answers that work best for you, but I do have some answers. Everything I’ve learned about entrepreneurship in the last 8 years is colored by my deep understanding of how short our time truly is. What I know about personal development and mental health I’ve learned over the last 11 years out of necessity because I faced inconceivable grief. What I’m learning now as a current undergrad student about psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy goes hand-in-hand with what I’m learning through my experience.

You’re here for a reason. That reason may be so that you would know, truly know in your bones, that you are not alone. We are in this together. We can plumb the depths of the hard stuff together and scale the heights of extraordinary joy hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart.

Here’s even a bit more about me if you’re even more curious. This is my statement of purpose I sent to graduate schools (which, if I get accepted to, you bet your bottom dollar I’ll be sharing about).