Real Talk

In February 2018 I just landed an amazing job, bought my own house, just turned 23, felt the most comfortable I ever had in my own skin, and recently retired from competing for Miss Louisiana. I felt like things had fallen into place until I found out I was pregnant. I was scared, but not for the typical reasons someone young and not married would be scared about having a baby. I had supportive family and friends. That was no issue. It felt like a death sentence. I was scared because of everyone telling me “just wait”. Everything I was told and read made being pregnant feel like a death sentence. I was generally advised to hurry up and get married, quit...

When Your Home Is a Battleground. When your home is a battleground, you pull in the driveway in the evening and it doesn’t feel like the end of the day. It feels like the day is just getting started. You have a plan in mind for how the night will go. What needs to get done and what you want to get done. You said your mantras and prayed your prayers. You listened to your podcasts. You convince yourself you can keep it all together tonight, no matter what gets thrown your way. When your home is a battleground there’s territory claimed. The kitchen is yours’s. The front porch is his. There are unspoken agreements. He gets the bathroom early evening; you...

As the song goes, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmasss…,” but in my mind, I am currently picturing white sand and blue water. Unfortunately, the holidays can be a stressful time for many even though it is supposed to be a time for joy and celebrating the birth of our savior. It’s a time with lots of extra expenses and you still have all your usual expenses too. And the all too familiar Covid throws another grinchy wrench in it all. Basically, holiday stress + pregnancy hormones = recipe for Level 5 meltdown.   After a disagreement between my husband and I one evening, I found myself sitting on the couch and wishing we were back in Hawaii. We sort of...

I never imagined I’d be the mom with the “bad” kid. I remember those kids in my classes growing up. I could still tell you their names. They were usually boys that loved being the class clown, always acting out and vying for attention in some way. As a kid, I never gave much thought about their reasons for acting the way they did. Surely their parents just didn’t care or weren’t giving them the necessary attention at home. Now I can say with full confidence that I was entirely wrong because (GULP) that parent is me. It’s an extremely hard pill to swallow being a bit of a perfectionist myself. I remember being pretty good about following the rules...

    I’m sitting at my kitchen counter, thanking God I finally got my two-year-old to nap, and I start to make a list of what I want to do the rest of the afternoon…fold (AND put away) the laundry, figure out the dinner situation, cut out box tops for school, etc. And the question that often lingers in the back of my mind slowly creeps to the forefront: am I wasting my degree? Should I be wearing a suit sitting behind a desk somewhere instead of wearing maternity leggings in my kitchen? To provide a little background, in my junior year of high school I decided that I was going to be a lawyer. It was after I and...