This Is My Why

It's kind of funny writing an article about the "why's" in my life when growing up, I was the kid always asking why. I wasn't innately rebellious really, it was more a blanket curiosity about all things that had to do with well, all things. I just like to understand stuff I guess. People generally think of kids like that as annoying, and I don't disagree. As an adult though, I like to think of it as… a lifelong learner. ? One of the biggest WHY's of my life has been trying to figure out why my life has had this certain path, why I love the things I love and even deeper, HOW I can pursue the things I love more, and shake off the things that hold me back.

I graduated from PA School in 2008. At the time, I thought I wanted to be a full-time missionary and even pursued that heavily. That was my main drive in going to PA School to begin with, I wanted to help the underserved in a big and tangible way. I had hands down the best preceptor in Emergency Medicine there ever was, Larry Lovelace. He is the reason why I fell in love with practicing Emergency and the rest is history. I began in the ER in January of 2009 and have never fully left.

At some point in 2012 I was lucky enough to get to work alongside a wonderful human and also plastic surgeon, Dr. Juan Brou in Oklahoma City. He, along with his staff that became friends, were the ones who taught me a lot of what I know today. After learning the ropes, I quickly found that I really loved the work I was doing. Night and day from the ER, but there was just something about it, something really dramatic that just had my heart stirring. It wasn't until the beginning of 2017 that it all made so much sense.

During those 5 years, there were certain things about myself that I knew for sure. To share a few, first, I knew that I loved taking care of people and being able to meet their needs. I've always been resourceful and found great joy into helping people in any way possible. Next, I knew I loved working with women. I love working with really anyone (says the girl who would literally die the loneliest death if she was left alone), but there's always been a special place in my heart for caring for other women. Last, I knew that as much as I enjoy structure and a plan, I don't feel like I am always at my best working for someone else. Too honest? Well, it's true. Being an employee is not my jam.

Time to take it full circle.

Because I am confined to this one blog post to try to make sense of all of this, I will have to save some of the best stuff for a later post. But just suffice it to say that doors have been wide open for me to collaborate with other women. Not just in Denver, or just in Colorado, or even in the US, but across nations all around the world. I have met and built relationships with who I am convinced are some of the most beautiful women on earth. This is one of the reasons I love to travel so much…I get to take bits and pieces of wisdom, love and life from each of these women and I have tried to adopt those things and become one big happy modge podge of all of it. In early 2017, I realized what it was that was stirring in my heart back in 2012. If you summarize the 3 things I mentioned above that I knew about myself, it's basically to meet the needs of (mostly) women, without being told how, when, and where. Voila. There seriously might not be anything better than to sit at the bedside of a woman in need (regardless of how big or small that need may be) and listen to her heart and hear the things that hurt and the things that make her heart soar. Maybe she's lacking confidence. Maybe she's been lied to her whole life by people who don't know how to love and she's chosen to believe the lies. Maybe she finds her value in how people view her. Maybe she has a voice but she's been too scared to let it be heard. Therein lies my mission... I got to spend time in Rwanda helping empower women and get them out of poverty and FIND THEIR VOICE, by doing even the simplest of things and meeting the simplest of needs. Yeah so maybe this isn't Rwanda and maybe our needs look different but we are all experiencing depravity in our own ways. Rwandans are rich in love, in community and in the way they support and hold each other up. We're not as good at that in the U.S. Our brokenness looks different, comparing country to country but even neighbor to neighbor…we are all just so different but we are all in ways, so broken. It was a task to try to understand how empowering women in Rwanda could have anything to do with my mission statement(s) for my spa but after plenty of time to think on it…I think I have arrived.

I won't even touch on any of the thousands of reasons you should want to take good care of your skin (yet.) and be comfortable in the body you've been given. But if nothing else, if taking good care of your skin, your body and your spirit helps you find your confidence, realize where your value lies and doesn't (because I'll straight up tell you it's way beneath the skin), and find your voice…then I'm your girl. Let's do this…together.

This endeavor is much more than a medical spa. I love building relationships, I love collaborating and hearing about all the things you love, and I love most of all that now I get to build this business ALL around loving on people. My new question is HOW did I get so lucky?.