What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
Maybe my purpose was never meant to stay in one place, maybe it was meant to evolve with me.
I have always been the type of person who naturally leans toward helping people, the kind who listens, feels deeply, and somehow carries the weight of others without being asked. For a long time, I thought that was my calling, to be there for others, to guide, to counsel, to offer clarity in the chaos. It felt right… until life started testing the very strength I was using to hold everyone else together.
When anxiety, depression, and eventually a diagnosis of BPD, then Kahlers disease and the creeping up of that sly old cervical cancer, came into the picture, the path I once envisioned started to blur. You cannot pour from an empty cup, and at some point, I had to face that truth. I realized that to help others, I first needed to heal myself. You cannot be a lighthouse when your own light keeps flickering.
There is a humility in admitting that your dream version of helping others needs to shift shape. It is hard, because part of me still aches for that version of myself, the one who could listen endlessly, who had advice ready for every storm. But the older I get, the more I understand that sometimes the best advice you can give the world is to show what healing actually looks like. To model rest, self-awareness, and the courage to change direction when something no longer serves your peace.
But here is the thing about purpose, it evolves. Just because one road closes does not mean your story ends, sometimes it is just a divine redirection. Lately, I have found myself drawn to something completely new, teaching abroad. English has always been my comfort zone, my safe space, my first love, and maybe it is time I use that gift to step into a whole new world. The thought of teaching, traveling, and seeing life from a different corner of the globe excites me. It is unfamiliar, yes. It is intimidating, definitely. But it also feels like growth knocking on my door.
And maybe that is what I have been craving all along, growth that does not just look good on paper, but feels right in my soul. The idea of standing in a classroom somewhere far from home, sharing language, laughter, and lessons with students who see the world through completely different eyes, that thought lights a spark in me I have not felt in a long time.
Getting out of my shell and comfort zone will not be easy, I know that. I have lived in my own head long enough to know that fear does not vanish, it just becomes something you learn to move with. But maybe the most beautiful transformations come from doing the things that scare us the most. Maybe this new chapter is not about abandoning who I was, but about discovering who I could still become.
I am a starting to believe that purpose is not a fixed destination, it is a conversation between who you were and who you are still becoming. And right now, my heart is whispering, “Go. See. Try. Teach. Live.”