I used to think being a jack of all trades meant I wasn’t good enough to master anything. That maybe it was a flaw — proof that I couldn’t stick to one path, one career, one version of who I was supposed to be. But now? I realize it means I’ve survived. It means I’ve adapted, hustled, and learned how to keep moving when standing still wasn’t an option.

For almost a decade, I worked in drug and alcohol treatment, because I’d been there. Not in theory, not through someone else’s story — but in my own. I know what it feels like to hit bottom, to claw your way out, to rebuild a life with pieces that don’t always seem like they’ll fit. And when you live like that, you learn to be resourceful as hell. You pick up skills in places no college course or internship could teach you. You learn to read a room. You learn how to problem-solve with whatever you’ve got. You learn how to show up, even on the days when your body and brain are screaming to crawl back into bed.

And somewhere along the way, you realize survival made you a jack of all trades, and maybe — just maybe — that’s not such a bad thing.

Now at 35, with two kids, a fiancé, and dreams I once thought were out of reach, I’m pivoting. I’m taking stock of the messy, beautiful, complicated life I’ve built and asking myself what it actually looks like to be happy, not just functional. It’s harder than it sounds. When you’ve spent your life in survival mode, choosing joy feels dangerous. Wanting more feels selfish. But I’m done apologizing for wanting more.

This summer, I’m doing something I’ve never really made time for: I’m checking in with myself. Not in the self-care Sunday Instagram kind of way — in the “who the hell am I outside of work and bills and everyone else’s expectations?” kind of way. Who am I as a mother, a partner, a friend, a daughter, a creative, a person trying to carve out a future that isn’t built entirely on trauma responses?

My ADHD has me all over the place most days. One minute I’m scheduling invoices, the next I’m designing graphics for a book launch, then I’m cleaning the kitchen while brainstorming plot twists for the novel I swear I’m finishing this year. And you know what? I’m done calling that a flaw. I’ve built my life out of multitasking, pivoting, and turning chaos into productivity. That’s a skill set. That’s survival turned superpower.

The truth is, experience doesn’t always come with a neat little title or a framed certificate. Sometimes it comes from the weird jobs you took because you had to, the side gigs you picked up when money was tight, the mistakes you made, and the lessons you learned the hardest way possible. I’ve worked in offices, treatment centers, trucking companies, marketing teams, and late nights at my kitchen table. Every one of those jobs gave me something — whether it was a new skill, a tough lesson, or a reminder of what I don’t want to do forever.

So no, I’m not a master of one thing. I’m a jack of all trades. And after everything I’ve survived, I’m damn proud of that.

And maybe you’re here too — feeling stuck between survival and chasing your dreams, trying to figure out what the next chapter looks like while holding it all together for everyone else. If you are, you’re not alone. It’s messy, it’s hard, and it’s worth it.

Here’s to building something better, one pivot at a time.