A Personal Wow

When I started my Wow Moments project in 2021, the goal was simple: create exciting memories. Then my life took a turn I didn’t expect.

When you lose someone significant, the secondary losses can surprise you. For me, two of the roughest were losing my vision of the future and my place in the community.

I’m someone who clings to certainty and to the roles of wife and mother I’d held for 28 years. Suddenly, the life I knew was over and the pieces that remained no longer fit. It sounds like an existential crisis, but I was left asking myself, “Who am I?” And I didn’t have an answer.

The good news, I discovered, is that not knowing was OK. I didn’t have to search and find myself; I could create myself anew. A fresh start lay before me, waiting to be written. I just had to be brave enough to embrace a new story.

Over the past several months, I’ve done just that. I’ve been trying new things and designing a new life. One without compromise. It’s been trial and error (and a little terror.) I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone. And I’ve often chosen to do things on my own to really experience them.

My sister reminded me that I function best with a plan and some scaffolding around me. For that reason, this blog has been vital to my journey. Focusing on my posts gave me the structure I needed to keep going.

I’ve always looked for what’s next instead of what’s now. This blog forced me to slow down and live in the moment. I used to take risks only in my work. Now, I take risks in my life. I’m more social than I ever was. I am more open to meeting new people and doing new things. I strike up conversations with strangers. I sign up for experiences that seem a little scary. I’m no longer afraid to walk into a room all on my own.

The best part is that it now feels like second nature. Instead of doing things in the name of this blog, I am doing things because it’s who I’ve become.

I feel like I am sitting in the front row of life. My life.

The biggest wow moment is that I’ve had a complete evolution that I could not have predicted or planned for. It happened because I put my face in the direction of the sun, and I said “yes” to whatever lies ahead.

And here’s what I want you to know: You don’t have to suffer loss to begin again and start to really live. You just have to be willing to write a new story.