What about me?

Its been about 3.5 months since we have been in Lausanne and now we are fully entrenched in the daily routine of IMD life. I am happy to report I have no complaints regarding getting enough time with my husband for my kids or time with him for myself. Of course there is an adjustment period getting to this point haha, but we made it! We have a great routine each week which includes stopping in during lunch breaks to get 15 minutes of time or my husband coming home for dinner about 3 times a week. AND we have had dinner out just the two of us pretty much once a week! It takes commitment from both of us and good communication but it truly is possible. However amongst all this...there's been one question nagging me at night lately..."what about me?"

At IMD we hear a lot from our partners about "self discovery" and "knowing your self". This is one of the key learnings the students will master almost more importantly than the academic principles upon graduation. After reflecting on this, I started to realize, while I was really happy with the way things were going, I am so busy being a mom and a supportive partner I was in danger of completely forgetting how I was going to advance myself this year. I think we default to think that this year is so busy making sure everything is in place at home for our partners, especially when you have a family, that we consciously put on hold continuing our long term goals or aspirations for ourselves. And believe me, I know at the end of this year I will be a far better mother and wife than before, and that is an amazing accomplishment in itself, but I need something just for me. So I have decided it is important for me to continue to advance myself in my working background of consumer and market research and hope to find some part-time project work throughout the year to keep myself in the loop. If I hadn't heard so much from my husband about IMD's teaching's in self discovery I probably would have repressed my desire to become re-engaged in my working life the entire year. But I have come to accept that this is who I am, a mother and a partner first and a working woman second. Both define who I am and I want to continue to advance this definition of myself.