Two weeks before I left Australia, I was lucky enough to catch up with Kate.
While our sporadic chats are infrequent, they make me feel like I’ve just swallowed a shot of Gammel Dansk schnapps.
Powerful, striking and long lasting.
You see, Kate was one of my most influential university lecturers.
She has certainly attributed to my personal and professional drive, despite the limited time we have spent together.
Kate is one of those people in life that makes you truly feel like you have an extremely important path to live.
As I summarised the insecurities I felt, Kate helped me realise that these moments were necessary to grow and were always going to play their part in my life.
I feel like I’ve been coasting along in life for the past five years, I said to her at breakfast. What legacy am I leaving, what impact am I really making in life I say, in a not so eloquently phrased line.
Jess she says, some people become professors in their twenties, some people earn half a million dollars a year in their forties and others have overwhelming success in their fields of expertise, but measuring their success in this way doesn’t give a true reflection on what they’ve been missing out on.
It might take years to finish a PhD, or be promoted to a higher rank at work or finish a book, but the plus side is that you can get there while still enjoying a balance in life.
The mantra fits nicely with how I look at life. I don’t forsake the things I enjoy to achieve the accolades at a faster rate. I may not make lasting impressions, or have children when all my friends are or make the money that other students I went to university with are making, but I am attempting to live with balance.
Keep doing what you are doing, continue the routine of life she says and it will be worth it.
Kate, thank you for helping me see worth in the daily boredom of routine, for being proud of the adventures I’m taking and for undoing the invisible rubber band called ‘self imposed expectations’ wrapped around my arteries.
Thank you for pumping the adrenaline back into my veins.
Soul Stamping 