Closing of a Chapter
ENDING A CHAPTER…
As I write this summary about myself, I am 3 days away from ending the professional life that I have worked extremely hard to cultivate since I graduated from undergrad in 1995. From the time of my first job as an analyst at a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, I have always taken the time to dream about my ideal job, at the “peak” of my career. Doing so, helped me to acquire the skills and experiences in the shorter-term that would help me with a longer-term plan. Almost one year ago from the time of this posting, I joined a new company and pretty much landed my “dream job”.
“Do you know a good way to make God laugh? Tell him your plans!” – Sean Penn, Actor
My daughter was born in the second half of 2007. I — and what I wanted from my time — didn’t change immediately after she was born. From after she turned 6 months old, however, accompanied by the slowing business activity in the first half of 2008 and then the unraveling economy in the latter half of 2008, my outlook began to change significantly.
Towards the end of 2008, after having about 1.5 years to juggle both a full-time job outside the home and motherhood, I made the difficult decision to resign from a career that I had really enjoyed.
WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER…
Fortunately, dreamers tend to have more than one dream. I resigned with one lofty business idea in mind, but, within one week of resigning, I was flooded with many more business ideas. In the short-term, I feel compelled to focus on The S File ™, of which this website is the first component.
Parenting
I believe that our choices create “butterfly effects” to various degrees. It’s hard to know which ones will create a life-altering impact. In regards to parenting, I would be forever devastated if one day my daughter developed a chronic illness, cancer, or was harmed in another way, because of an uninformed choice of mine. We can’t control many things (including health issues), but I need to know that I’ve done my best for her. I have been very lucky by living by the mantra that luck is when preparation meets hard work. Right now, my daughter is the most important responsibility I have.
To those who say or think, “well, I grew up with my parents not worrying about the chemicals in our food and environment and I turned out fine,” I also thought the same thing. But if you start reading more about this topic (such as Alarming Trends, Personal Care Products, and Cleaning Products), you’ll find some thought-provoking things. Did you know that since WWII more than 80,000 new chemicals have been introduced into the world? A small fraction of those chemicals have been studied and proven safe.
We now live in a different environment and it’s going to take a very long time for the scientists and government to have evidence of the harmful implications of that fact. I don’t need an authoritative agency to tell me what I instinctively know: children (and adults) are being exposed to too many unnatural things that interfere with the body’s brilliant processes.
Taking this “value system” and implementing it into practice has been very hard. As I stumble through figuring out this challenging and fortunate journey of parenting, I hope that sharing my experiences on this website will help like-minded people to more quickly make healthier choices for ourselves.
I view myself as a student who is trying to bridge different expertise (in areas such as health, nutrition, and child development) to raise my family with a macro-level understanding. Trying to navigate a tremendous amount of information and figure out which products to buy and what to feed my daughter has been challenging. With an open mind and heart, I welcome additional — even differing — perspectives!
Please feel free to reach out to me at MsS@theSfile.com. I’d love to hear from you!
Best,
Ms. S
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