LIFE LIVED BY DESIGN

In 2017, a headache on Monday turned to vision issues by Wednesday, and I was in surgery that Friday. It happened so fast there was no time to process. I have no memory of being in the hospital or my first few weeks at home, which means my early story isn't really mine. It's a compilation of stories from the perspective of those around me at the time.

 

What I do remember is what came after. Without agency over my health in those early days, I started looking for it elsewhere. I re-examined my relationships, my career, how I took care of myself, my values, my priorities, and my life goals. For the first time, I could see a path beyond just a career. There was a life path, and I had a say in where it went.

 

Around this same time, I left a career in education that was running me into the ground. Students and colleagues had been telling me for years I'd be a great life coach, but I'd brushed it off. Then I hired a coach myself to help me through this career transition, and by the third session I realized coaching was what I'd been doing with my students all along. I enrolled in an ICF-accredited program in 2019, launched my practice, and became an ICF Professional Certified Coach. I worked as a lead trainer at a coach training program and completed ICF Mentor training. Coaching gave me a way to help people navigate the kind of transformation I was living through myself.

 

With my new formal training as a coach, I spent years working toward alignment and integration in all areas of my life. I created visual anchors to keep me on track or bring me back when I strayed. I got involved with the American Brain Tumor Association as a patient mentor, joined their Volunteer Leadership Advisory Council, and started attending their annual national conference. I joined the Patient & Caregiver Advisory Board at the Malnati Brain Tumor Institute, where I receive my treatment. The more I showed up in the brain tumor community, the more I saw the gap between medical recovery and identity integration. People were being sent home without tools to navigate who they were becoming.

 

Then came 2025. Eight hours of seizures put me back in the hospital. My tumor had grown. What followed was months of doctors appointments, an expanded medical team, treatment, medications, side effects, mental health deterioration, restrictions, and unemployment. It has been, by far, the lowest point in my life. And unlike the first time around, I am fully experiencing and remembering all of it.

 

Here's what I’ve learned. The who and the why that I uncovered after my original diagnosis held steadfast. What changed was the how. I've had to adapt to new ways of managing an unexpected path. This path has diverged, but because I'm so integrated with the core of who I am, I know it will find its way back with me as an even more evolved version of myself. I’m able to trust the process in ways I couldn’t previously understand.

 

Now I guide people through the non-linear, unexpected identity evolution that follows brain tumor diagnosis. I help them move beyond being a patient, integrate their experience, and claim agency over who they're becoming. Everything I've lived, learned, and built has led me here.