Hopes, Dreams, and the DMV

Last summer, I had a heart-to-heart with a stranger at the DMV – like you do. And it changed the course of my life for the better.

Kenzie was the kind of person who could have a stimulating conversation with a house plant. She was warm, friendly, and supremely confident. We sat side by side talking about our jobs – mine in career and professional development and her’s at a furniture delivery company.

Then we dove deeply into our hopes, dreams, and heartbreaks before venturing into lighter conversational territory. Which made sense, because you know, we met 20 minutes ago in line at the DMV. So Kenzie asked me about my hobbies to which I replied “keeping my two small children alive.”

What Makes You Who You Are?

At this point, we had really connected on a spiritual level, and according to the sign at the DMV we still had 4,586 numbers to go before we were called, so Kenzie pushed me on the point.

“But what else? Like before you had kids. What makes you who you are?”

(Editor’s note: I had my three-week-old baby with me at the time so I was probably overtired and might be romanticizing this interaction slightly. She might have just asked if I liked camping. Whatever, it’s my story.)

In the moment I remember being a walking cliché and saying that I liked sports and spending time with my family and friends. I think at this point Kenzie yawned.

(No she didn’t, she was lovely.)

I Like To Write

The conversation stuck with me.

Maybe because Kenzie was at the DMV changing the sex on her license so that her ID represented the strong, proud woman she was today. Maybe because she was just kind of awesome and had so many passions and interesting stories about her past. I don’t know, I just felt like I owed her more.

Looking back what I wanted to tell Kenzie was that as much I enjoyed my career, I also loved writing funny posts on Facebook. But that’s not really a thing. So, if you’re reading this, Kenzie, I like to write.

Mostly I like to write things that make people laugh, because life is too short to be taken that seriously. Sometimes I write about things that are downright heart wrenching, because life is too short not to take people’s emotions seriously. And lately I’ve found a way to combine my professional jam with my humor jam and speak to parents about their career development. It’s crazy fun.

But overall, I like to write because it is part of what makes me who I am and it is kind of lame that I hadn’t attempted to share that beyond a biweekly Facebook post about what my kid said today. Though honestly, this blog does include a lot about what my kids said today – they are hilarious.

The Birth of a Blog

So welcome to my foray into having a hobby outside of “listening to NPR” and “30 minutes on the elliptical.”

I hope you’ll laugh with me, laugh at me, learn a bit, and enjoy a quick read while you’re hiding in the bathroom.

I know where you are right now, let’s not pretend.

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