Freedom has a paywall

Hey [FIRST NAME GOES HERE],

Quick announcement:

If you are a teacher who’s decided you’re ready for your next chapter, be sure to get on my waitlist for my course and community:

**From Classroom Copywriter (Learn How to Book Your First Paid Writing Client—Even if You’re Still Teaching!) for all the details and first dibs on limited spots. Doors open for the limited number of founding member spots on Wednesday 7/9 !

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It’s the 4th of July.

I will be the first to say that this day has always felt…

sticky for me.

And I not because I ate too many popsicles or had one too many drinks spilled on me (though certainly both of those things have happened in my life).

This year it feels downright disturbing.

Because while this country was supposedly built on the idea of “freedom,”

it’s always felt exceptionally clear that it only meant freedom for… some people.

The people it’s not meant for has changed (a little bit) with the times.

But the themes of who freedom leaves out remain the same:

People of color

Women

Those “not from here” (this never made sense to me because if unless you are person of indiginous descent, none of us are “from” here.

Those that look different from whoever is making “the rules.”

These days, all of these things feel true. And more than anything, it feels like: freedom can be yours…

if you can pay for it.

And damn… is it expensive.

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Freedom comes in many forms these days. And some (ok a lot of them) are ideas that were built by a few, for a few.

And sometimes I think that—rather than reflect on that—what actually happens is a lot of celebrating what it is supposed to be and not what it actually is.

Because it’s much easier to drink all day, eat too much, set off loud fireworks that are terrible for the environment, and call it “Freedom.”

How is this celebrating freedom ?

Whose freedom?

What if instead you spent 5 minutes thinking about what it actually means to be free in today’s world?

Free from what someone else has told you your life should be like?

Free from how “the American Dream” has guided your path?

As someone who straddles the Gen X/Millennial line (I think someone cleverly called it Xennenial?) as much as I set out to walk my own path when I was younger (yes my rising Sagittarius, adventurer, forever seeker self quit my first ever job after college to instead be a lifeguard at a Club Med in Mexico…)

the beat of that “traditional” drum still caught up me.

When I broke up with my boyfriend at 26 at the same time my brothers were getting married, I was positive I was “doing it wrong.”

After all, if you don’t get married and have a family are you really even an adult?

I didn’t have many examples of doing things differently in my life.

And I’m positive that if I had, I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to course correct what felt more natural for me.

It took me a long time to feel freedom from what I thought my life SHOULD be like.

-Wife

-Mom

-Traditional job where I could “climb the ladder,” earn more and more each year, have a pension, and retire at 65.

Here’s the thing:

For so many of us now, every rung on that ladder is broken.

In the end, I realized I would have to rebuild what freedom looked and felt like for me in order to feel like it was mine.

Yes I got married—but my marriage has always been a place for growth, and reflection. A mirror for both of us rather than a place you go stop trying new things.

Yes I have a child—and I have learned so much about myself and what the portal I believe motherhood can be if we start telling the truth and supporting each other through all the hardest things rather than judging each other.

Yes, I started out in a “traditional job.” I even stayed way longer than I ever should have, than I knew was good for me.

And then when I could feel that a shift was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not?

I leaned into it. I guided where I thought it could go.

I believed in a freer version of my life even when I was really unsure about each step I was taking.

Today, I will be celebrating in some ways, yes.

But I’ll be taking a lot of time to think about how I am going to continue to be a person that lifts up others, that finds a way for more people to be free.

Because truly, freedom for a chosen few isn’t freedom.

How do you celebrate the 4th—Or reflect on it?

Hit reply… I’d love to hear about anything this sparks for you.

The 4 x1

Update on Content Biz: I’m starting a new eBook with a literacy company I contract with! I’ve ghostwritten a few of these over the past 3 years and truly they are one of my favorite projects.

Update on Coaching Biz: Doors Open on 7/9 for my debut course and community built specifically for female teachers who know they want to leave the classroom to try content or copywriting and need the exact steps to get them there. I will only be opening doors to my waitlist this time around: are you on it??

Tiny Brave Things: Today I am celebrating all the brave people that are continuing to speak up even though their careers and even lives are in danger. This is not a tiny thing and if we all continue to say, “this is not normal, we aren’t going to accept any of it” it will be THE THING that keeps our democracy in tact in the end.

One to Grow On: If you aren’t listening already, go check out Krista Tippet’s podcast series call “The Hope Portal” : a reflection/course experience curated by Krista and drawing upon her conversations with several visionary humans: Adrienne maree brown, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ocean Vuong, Joy Harjo, Joanna Macy, and Ross Gay. They offer ways of seeing and living to lay our hands and our hearts, our imaginations and life force on the generative possibilities of life in this time.