What I Want My Daughters to Know

Photo by Kesha Lambert Photography via @triciasmithbrown

All this talk about Beyoncé and empowering women has got me thinking about future generations. If you didn't know, I'm crazy about kids. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted seven--it's my favorite number, after all. I'm much older and wiser than I was when I first decided that, but somehow that number hasn't changed through the years. I think of my children often: how I want to raise them, what I want to teach them, what instruments they'll take up, sports they'll play...essentially who I want them to become. So I made this list to remind me of all the things I want them to know when they're no longer figments of my imagination but actual humans walking the earth.

Becoming a Better Me: The Ultimate Challenge

Moving Day! (Luckily, not mine.) 

My father was mad at me one morning--actually, the day after my graduation!--for not waking up as early as he thought I should. I actually had laid out plans for myself that did not include waking up early at all. Somehow, he believed his plans should trump mine. I later heard my mother come to my defense. My father replied: "I want her to be perfect." No pressure, right? Well, that's not going to happen. I've accepted that I'll never be perfect and I won't always get things right on the first try. However, this is no excuse to not still strive for excellence in all that I do.

So I'm working on some things. My parents have inspired me to work harder and smarter. Maybe some of the areas needing improvement in my life might inspire some of you. Here goes:

Are You Willing to Bench on Varsity?

I have been wrestling with two very different philosophies on life and growth recently. One was presented to me while reading The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography. According to this piece, whenever she is asked why she joined Google after getting her master's in symbolic systems at Stanford, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer tells her "Laura Beckman story" about the daughter of her middle school piano teacher. I'll let Marissa tell it in her own words: