From Chicago with Love
This morning I’m coming to you from the one and only “Windy City” herself Chicago. I’ve been here since Tuesday morning on a work trip, and let me tell you it’s been COLD. Eyes and nose pouring down your face after one minute on the sidewalk cold. Walking around saying “holy moley” over and over cold. Maybe the coldest I’ve ever been.
Even so, it’s been a big dream kind of week.
Here’s why — Around this time five years ago, I was in one of the worst places professionally in my life. I had let myself become aligned with people, places, and ways of thinking that weren’t healthy and I was slowly waking up to the truth that I had some very big changes to make and didn’t know how to make them. My work life was stalled. I wasn’t learning or growing like I wanted to. And when I was publicly shamed in front of all of my colleagues (and rightly so), I became disenchanted with my work altogether.
Now, five years later, I’m working with one of the most respected research foundations in the US. It’s blowing my mind.
If you’ve been in this email group for a while, you know how it happened, but I have to tell you that even though I lived it, I still can hardly believe it. Things like this don’t typically happen to people like me. And although in the grand scheme of things, what I do isn’t really that earth-shattering and probably isn’t going to save lives on a large scale or solve the incredibly concerning problems our country is experiencing (and causing) right this very moment, I’m extremely grateful.
I have heaps of things I’m still trying to figure out in life, for sure, but I’m so grateful to be who I am right now working with people who are on the front lines changing the world for the better. I’m pinching myself that I get to be here and that I have so many people in my life loving me and helping me along the way.
Seriously, big dreams do come true — no matter who you are, where you come from, what you’ve done or haven’t done.
Anything is possible.
That’s my little update for you today, my friend. I hope it encourages you. I hope you know that no matter what you’re feeling right now or what you’re going through, you’re not alone and there’s so much hope, so much that’s possible.
Sending all my love,
💛 Celeste
P.S. If the world is feeling like an unfortunate alternate reality to you right now and every piece of news leaves you feeling a little helpless or hopeless, you’re not alone. I feel it too. I’ve decided to look for helpers right now — people who are doing good, adding joy, helping others — and I found one in a little email that came into my inbox from Taylor Jenkins Reid this week where she shared how indie bookshops in Los Angeles are banding together to be part of the solution for what’s been happening to people there. It brought me joy and reminded me that we can help a little too by buying books from those shops right now through bookshop.org.