For years, I followed the rules and built what looked like a “successful” career in Corporate America. I learned to be professional, politically correct — which often meant silencing myself and leaving parts of who I was at the door. From the outside, everything looked great. On the inside, I felt disconnected, unfulfilled, and quietly asking: Is this really it?

Then life cracked me open.

My husband suffered a heart attack and two strokes, spending five weeks in a medically induced coma — much of it triggered by relentless job stress. Watching him fight for his life forced me to look hard at how we were living, and why. It woke me up to how fragile life is — and how easily we trade our joy for someone else’s definition of success.

Forced into a new life, we eventually learned how to live again. But this time: honestly, fully, alive.

That journey led me to life coaching — not just as a profession, but as a way of being. I got certified through the Inspired Spirit Coaching Academy, and made it my mission to help others who feel stuck in lives that look “fine” but feel hollow, and those forced to navigate unexpected life changes.