As I write this newsletter, I am now officially the mom of three adults. My youngest kiddo turns 18 today. Very little has actually changed between yesterday and this morning, but legally, quite a lot has. I am still her mom, fierce champion, emergency contact, personal advisor as requested, and the keeper of family history and information she may call to ask about one day. But I no longer have the same access or automatic responsibility I have carried since the day I learned

I was talking with my 19-year-old stepdaughter the other night, and she said something that made me feel so proud of her for realizing it, and then instantly made me feel a little sad. She's already looking back at childhood and realizing how often she was in such a hurry to grow up that she forgot to enjoy being a kid. And I told her, “I think a lot of us still do that, even as adults.” Instead of racing towards adulthood, I think we’re now racing towards some imagined versi

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking to a room full of students about careers, space exploration, AI, creativity, and the future. The week before that, I participated in a speed mentoring event for college and graduate students. As expected, many of them wanted to know some version of the same thing: What's the best path? If I want to become X, what's the one thing I should do? How do I know if I'm making the right decision? What if I make the wrong choice? These may