Oh so many hats!

"IN THE beginning, Bartholomew Cubbins didn’t have five hundred hats. He had only one hat."-Theodor Geisel 

I remember back when I just had one hat, when I was just responsible for myself. Not a boss at work, not a wife, not a mom, not a housekeeper or chauffeur or cook. To be honest, I wasn't all that great at managing just that one hat. I was vain, I was petty, I was equal parts smart, charming, sexy, and witty ...and mercurial, mutable, skittish, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable. I was self conscious, I was bold...but only to cover that I was also scared.

As life went on, I began to gather more hats, and truth be told, I actually got better with each hat. I learned to be a good manager and leader. I became a wife, and I must be reasonably successful at that, because I'm still going strong 20+ years later.

Somewhere in that time, I took off a bunch of hats, as I left a career as a hospitality industry executive, to be a stay at home mom. I don't regret that decision ever, but it with that decision, I took off many of the hats that brought admiration and accolades, the hats with all the bells and whistles and fancy feathers, the ones that seemed to contain much of my identity. I added about 10 new hats to the collection then, and some of those hats were dusty, or tired or even painful to wear. A lot of those hats didn't come with much by way of accolades, and, I have to admit...sometimes they were very heavy.

And then there is now, 14 years later, instead of this heavy head full of hats, it feels like hats are just falling away left and right. My kids don't need dressed, they don't need me to make breakfast or their lunch. They clean their own rooms, and even do some of their own laundry. Instead of wanting all of my attention...sometimes now, all they need is a ride off to their own lives.

...and I realized, that I don't actually know what that hat that I started with looks like anymore. I don't even know if it is there for sure, and I absolutely don't know what I want the few hats that I choose to put back on look like. But all of those hats gave me a lot of courage, and even the ones I didn't like made me stronger, and I'm absolutely excited to go forward, choosing only the ones that I love, and that fit me perfectly to take into the future.

So far, I'm keeping wife, mom and friend. I'm also happily wearing my librarian hat, and my "gives back to her community" hat. I'm trying back on my chef hat, but as a nutrition coach, creating new healthy recipes. I'm also a fitness coach, and I'm starting to build a team of people to share my new hats with.

Nina, of the 500, or 100, or maybe just 10 hats. I like it.

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