"When my daughter was born, I was young and terrified. At 23, I was learning how to be an adult while learning how to raise a child. Motherhood felt vast and uncertain, like stepping into a life that expected everything from me before I'd even figured out who I was. Seventeen years later, I had my second child. This time around, I'm in my 40s and older and wiser."
"Every stage of my daughter's life has mirrored one of my own transformations. When she began school, I returned to university to complete my teacher training, choosing a path that allowed me to share the same holidays and rhythms of her world. As she was making friends, I was learning who I was, too. When she started secondary school, I was stepping into leadership, becoming head of the department."
"There was a time when my anxiety was so heavy that even leaving the house felt impossible. Yet now, she has seen me carry us across continents. Together we've climbed glaciers, paddled through the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, been blessed by monks in a Buddhist temple, been on Safaris in the Savannah, and volunteered in orphanages and women's refuges."
I had my first child at 23 and my second in my 40s. My daughter experienced my youthful, uncertain years; my son is getting a more confident parent. Presence matters more than perfection. I learned adulthood while learning to raise a child and once felt young and terrified. Seventeen years later I became a mother again, older and wiser. Every stage of my daughter's life mirrored one of my own transformations: university and teacher training, leadership as head of department. Severe anxiety once made leaving the house impossible, yet we later traveled across continents. Now we live in East Africa, where she has seen fear turn into quiet courage.
Read at Business Insider
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