When I was a kid, I wanted to be all the usual things — writer, teacher, maybe even an FBI agent if the mood struck. What I didn’t put on the list? Landscaper. Farmer. Pig wrangler. Tomato midwife. Yet here we are. It started innocently enough:A little backyard garden with tomatoes and cucumbers. Then…That turned into an urban farm. Which turned into us raising pigs. Which turned into us taking care of our pigs on a milk cow farmer’s property (because of course it did). Which turned into Tim mowing some lawns.Which turned into us taking care of entire estates. Which turned into— Surprise.We’re landscapers now. Every time we’re outside hauling branches or fixing something with zip ties and sheer willpower, I look at Tim, my husband, and say: “Wild. I had no idea I wanted to be a landscaper when I grew up.” Life doesn’t always follow your childhood blueprint… Sometimes it hands you a rake and a pig and says,“Figure it out.” Your turn —What did you want to be when you grew up, and what did life turn you into instead?

I don't have to say how much I love Goose because so many of you here Do. He was the first Skooler I met in person- literally before I met anyone else on this platform, and also the first person I hugged. I know how much I've grown in my own life to come out of tendencies to conform. And so I wondered, all the while, watching him present, interact, and just Be- if and what he'd gone through himself. Something so beautiful about when you reach a place of trusting yourself. It can take time- even years to come into. And so much of that is just a learning experience- being in situations where you realize- That wasn't true to myself- THAT- what I said, how I dressed, how i behaved- THAT MOMENT- THOSE WORDS- THAT RELATIONSHIP- THAT BUSINESS- THAT ENDEAVOR- THAT SMILE- THAT HAIRDO-THAT CONVERSATION You were trying to “prove” something to someone else that you already deep down knew to be true. What's a pattern in your life where you were Trying to prove yourself- and then one day you SAW WITH OPEN EYES AND WERE LIKE ----- (see GIF) And how did that help you become MORE TRUE to YOU?