Hi everyone!

When I turned 25 this spring, I knew what was inevitably coming my way—the urge to run a marathon.

I am a fairly fit and active person, but I cannot run more than 3km off the couch. You will find me wheezing and red if I do that. A marathon would be a massive lift for me. That being said, there was a phase of my life where I ran fairly consistently—still maxing at about 5km, so do with that what you will. In that phase I was a devout user of the Nike Run Club app and big fan of Coach Bennett.

Hi everyone,

It feels like stress is this big black shadow lurking at the edges of my vision that I cannot make it shrink and I certainly cannot make go away. I am working on that. Stress management was a large part of what last week’s note was all about.

Here’s my issue: I stress when there is nothing that I can do to ensure everything goes perfectly, and I stress that I cannot stop stressing.

Hi everyone,

My little sister and I have a habit of releasing these big sighs every once in a while. We have done it since before we can remember and it is so habitual that our dogs may have picked up on it and begun replicating it. I have done it at least four times since I started writing this note to you. For me, this sigh is air being sucked in through my nose, my chest rising and expanding, and then air going out through my nose accompanied by a whooshing sound.

In working through my stress and anxiety, I have come across more breathing techniques than I truly know what to do with. I am sure that you don’t need my non-credentialed self giving you any more. Who am I to let that stop me?

Hi everyone,

I hope that wherever you are, life is going easy on you, but if it’s not, you are not alone. This week was incredibly hard for me.

It’s not worth going into the details, so if you thought this was going to be a heat-of-the-moment tell-all, I am afraid you will be disappointed. Instead, I feel like it makes sense to come back to my “I Hate Learning” series.

Hi everyone!

I am so excited to share this week’s From a Friend with you. This friend and I go way back. We were roommates in college where I got to watch her first start thinking about some of the ideas in this letter. Here she talks shares her take on how we manage people, show up for ourselves and others, and try hard while navigating imposter syndrome. She is someone I go to when I am frustrated at how I am being managed and need to be reminded that good managers exist.

I love how she wrestles with ideas and I hope that you all are able to take inspiration and advice from her words.

Hi there,

There is another side to the patience and ambition coin.

Last week I wrote about kinetic and potential energy using the metaphor of an archer (here). Even as I was writing it I could see the holes in my logic—the idea itself feels naive, even as it feels comforting. Parts of me were shouting, “you don’t even know if you want to hit that target that you think you want!” The metaphor doesn’t allow for you to change your final destination or to simply not have one.

Hi there,

It is no surprise to anyone who has been reading my notes for a while that I readily accept the label of “ambitious”. To me, being ambitious is about believing that you can do more than you are already doing. That push to do more—to get better—is what gets me to send the first email of the day and the last one. It is also what pushes me to keep looking beyond my current horizon. I believe that my life will continue to expand in front of me in ways that I have yet to wrap my head around.

However, I am learning that when you invite ambition to the table, you must also invite patience.

Hi everyone!

I have been thinking about work-life balance a lot recently. My office offered a compressed schedule for one month this summer which means that from July 15 to August 15, I am enjoying a four day work week. To say that I am loving it would be an understatement. It truly feels like this is how work and life is supposed to be.

Hi there,

I’ve had a hard week. It wasn’t bad necessarily, just a series of frustrating moments that has left me drained and disheartened. Weeks like this happen—they are part of a very good life—and they suck.

I have some skills and some go-to moves that I break out on weeks like this that I want to share with you.

Hi there,

It is hurricane season here in the southeastern US. That means that there is almost always rain in the forecast and for each day that it doesn’t rain, you can feel the storm growing. The air is thick and sticky. The pavement steams. The clouds get darker by the day. Some days, we’ll get a light summer sprinkle. Then it breaks open.

Generally, I like a good storm. I grew up in a rainforest. I got used to consistent heavy rains. I remember sitting in high school classes and watching the sky open up and drench the pavement between school buildings. A good storm can cool things off a little bit. It feels like a release of pressure. Recently though, storms have been feeling scarier. Flooding in my area and across the American South reminded me that what initially felt like an atmospheric vibe session is actually something potentially catastrophic.

Hey everyone,

My sister and will routinely get into a good giggle about how easy it is to be nice to people and how much that pays off. This week, I am talking about The Good Place, a hotdog stand in Baltimore, horseback riding, and the art of being nice to people.

Hi everyone,

It’s the Fourth of July!

I am taking it slow today and reveling in long weekends and summertime adventuring. Consider this brief email an OOO note.

Hi there!

The summer after I graduated from high school, I stayed with my godfather and his family in Sydney. I got to spend my days with his kids and drinking coffee and soaking in the Australian sun. My godfather has a favorite brand of tea and on each of the tea tags there would be a different saying or inspirational quote. This was one of them:

“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

Hi there,

As we know by now, the algorithm decides our personalities, not us. My algorithm has pegged me as a soft girl who likes being outside, picnics, and the public library.

Interestingly, that is not how I see myself. I mean, I love being outside and I love the idea of picnics even if I never have the creativity or will power to actually commit to having one. The public library however, is a more fickle friend for me.

Dear Reader,

As we covered a couple of weeks ago: I hate learning.

I acknowledge off the bat that is a sweepings statement. This time around, we will focus on one aspect of it: I have a singular issue with making mistakes.

Happy Birthday to the Cooperative!

I have been writing my newsletter for a year now. It has been a rollercoaster.

Dear Reader,

Did you know that there is a course available through LinkedIn Learning dedicated to teaching managers how to work with their Gen Z colleagues? When I came across it this morning, I had the immediate desire to send it to some of my awful former managers — but, I stayed strong for the sake of my career, and decided that I would sit down and watch through it.

It is taught by Watchen Nyanue Hampton, the self-proclaimed “Gen Z Whisperer” and founder of “I Choose the Ladder”, a boutique consulting firm focused on women-centric HR. On her Instagram, she discusses how she created the “college to career” newsletter, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. She seems well-intentioned, but I really don’t know what qualifies her (or anyone else) to discuss how to manage an entire generation of people through and ill-fitting stereotype.

Hello!

It’s college graduation season! I know I have some grads in the Femme Futures Cooperative and I hope you had a fantastic celebration with your people.

My goal today is to provide a handful of honest tips on navigating life immediately post-grad. TLDR: it isn’t for the faint of heart but it also isn’t optional. You must do it, and I believe that you can do it with flair and finesse.

Hi guys!

I just submitted my end-of-fiscal-year self-evaluation to my boss. Honestly, I hate writing these because it requires a very specific type of introspection. Unlike when I naval-gaze here, that naval-gazing is going to the person who will, in turn, tell me if I am meeting the expectations of my job and earning my paycheck. It’s different.

I wanted to talk about this process from my experience and maybe provide some guidance and insight for folks navigating these in the early stages of their careers.

Hey there,

With the current state of the world, I am finding it hard to trust in most of my insights or beliefs. Everything feels fluid and chaotic. While I find my feet, I want to share a glimmers post. It has been a while since I posted one of these. I am worried that they seem like filler caused by my desire to publish weekly. They are — at least a little bit. But they are also important, especially in chaos.

I hope that my glimmers help you recognize your own. Drop a glimmer or two in the comments or email me back directly.