I didn’t choose my life‘s work. It chose me.

I did not choose my life‘s work. It chose me. 

This has never rang more true than it does now—these last couple of years. The “Just A Mom” title is not just tongue-in-cheek. It’s the truth. I was a stay at home mom for 25 years. Not that I didn’t do other things during that time. But my primary focus was the raising of my children. I’m thankful that I had the ability to do that, and I appreciate that not everyone does.

When Will’s mental health crisis hit 6 years ago, I never in a million years would have guessed this is where it would end up taking me. In the months before his crisis, I had actually been investigating starting my own geriatric case management company. Before I had kids, I went back to school and got my master’s degree in gerontology. I was a caseworker with the state.  I was looking into classes to brush up on my knowledge before re-entering the workforce. Then I got the call from the principal saying that Will had emailed the school counselor asking for help. That he was depressed, anxious and had been engaging in self harm.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be completely immersed in the mental health world, much less hosting a podcast about mental health. Life is funny like that.“

Immediately I put my career plans on hold. It was a long, hard year of Will working toward health, and we worked at it too. And then Will started the YMF, and he became somewhat of a local teen spokesperson for mental health. Because of that I took him to record a video for #ZeroReasonsWhy, and they asked me to record one two. Lo and behold the video that I recorded had over 10,000 views. And here I am.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be completely immersed in the mental health world, much less hosting a podcast about mental health.

Life is funny like that. This work chose me.