I graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) in 1992. For years, I have been asked to guest lecture to graduating classes of the journalism/mass communication department there. I love it.
Over the last several years, I’ve been asked to talk about “balance.” Life balance. Work balance. How to juggle a family, a life, a career and everything else you can think of to balance. And it always makes me pause.
I could fill the pages of this blog and so many others talking about the struggles I have with life balance and every other balance. I won’t. I promise. But I have to put the question out there. Do you ever, as a woman, wake up and wonder if you’ve made the right choices? I do. And if you don’t, I want the name of your therapist, because I don’t have one.
I look at my children who are now 7 and 5 and think, “Did I miss out on the best years of their lives?” Or, have I been a good role model for two young men who will look at women as equals and capable of anything they put their minds to? It’s gotta be the toughest question of them all. I wake up every day and hope that I didn’t make a mistake and miss out. But I also know that for me, personally, I couldn’t have chosen any other way. I’m not wired that way, and it’s not in my DNA. And that shouldn’t be a crime.
So, I guess I just take my own advice that I give every year. Deal with it. If you’re going to have a career, and you want to have a family, you’re going to feel guilty. Period. You just have to decide how much guilt you can personally endure. And if you have any questions, call me. I’m the queen of guilt.
