my alternate universe resume

fresh flowers, coding, handwritten notes, and a tiny place of my own

Hey friend,

I wanted to reach out to you right before Thanksgiving. I hope you’re ready to enjoy lots of comfort food even if it comes with a few of those classic family questions about your timeline, your plans, or “what’s next?!”

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably smile through it, change the subject, and remind yourself that your life doesn’t have to follow anyone else’s pace.

Prepping for the holiday reminded me that God often leads us to our paths in ways that don’t look linear at all. I’ve always had trouble choosing what I wanted to be when I was growing up.

I felt like I wanted to be everything; a veterinarian, a software engineer, a florist, a business owner, someone who made beautiful things and someone who helped people. Sometimes I think about all of the alternate universes I could have lived in if I didn’t end up in finance.

All the versions of me that could have existed:

• a flower shop girl

• a café owner who knows every regular by name and their usual order

• a pottery studio artist

• a writer who works in a library (random fact: I actually did work in one for 6 years)

And when I think about those paths, I don’t feel regret, I feel grateful. Because I’m starting to see that God never wastes the pieces of us we thought we left behind. Every little dream I had shows me something He placed in me on purpose.

Even now, in the world of finance, those old dreams still slip through: in the flowers I keep on my home desk, the playlists I make on Spotify while drinking my morning coffee (shoutout to Olivia Dean <3), the books I read, and the words I write to you in this newsletter.

Maybe the alternate universes were never meant to be separate lives. Maybe God includes them into the one I’m living to show up in small, beautiful ways that remind me that every version of me was always safe in His hands.

---

via Pinterest

And if you’re reading this, I hope it reminds you that you’re allowed to hold more than one dream, too.

You don’t have to have everything figured out, and you don’t have to choose one version of yourself forever. God is big enough to hold all the pieces of you, even the ones you think you’ve left behind.

Those versions of you still matter, and God includes them into your life in quiet, beautiful ways. They show up in your preferences, your natural gifts and talents, your routines, and the small things that make you feel most like yourself.

So if the typical Thanksgiving questions ever make you feel behind or unsure or like you “missed your chance,” just know you’re exactly where you’re meant to be and the dreams you think you left behind can still live inside the life you have now.

I wanted to be everything growing up, but the best thing I ever became was a Child of God <3

Feel free to re-read this as many times as you want if this holiday is hard for you.

You’re not alone and I’m very proud of you!!!

---

---

Proverbs 3:5–6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.