My Personal Story
Married at 19
I grew up in the Midwest, in an area many refer to as the Bible Belt. My sisters and I moved around a lot, not because we were military kids, but because it was my parents' way of moving up the ladder. We moved 15 times by the time I was 14. So new jobs for Dad meant new schools and new friends for us. We finally settled in Indiana when I was in 7th grade and stayed put from then on.
It was typical for women to get married at a young age back then. And by the time I graduated high school, many of my girlfriends would get that diploma and go straight into marriage and motherhood. I did it, too. I was 19 when I married, and my first child was born when I was 21. Yet that didn't deter me from my education. I knew it was vital to my future.
I knew education was key
Because my classes started early I would feed and dress Janie, then off to the girlfriend's house down the street to drop Janie off for the day while I drove 25 miles down the road to Indiana University. My life's mission wasn't yet sealed, but I knew that I was closer to a better life through getting more education.
Little did I know there would be challenges I couldn't even dream of ahead.I typed my papers on a little blue Smith Corona typewriter with my daughter on my lap. We were a team and spent long hours learning what our life would be like together. I think it was even then that I understood how important it was to be an example for her. To keep going…to stay focused.
My Search for Me as a Woman
But I still didn't know how to get there. There was a constant tug in my soul to discover my life's direction. So I started doing what I knew, being in a relationship with a man as a wife. Even though I knew it wasn't the answer, deep inside. Instead of spending time on me, I got stuck into thinking that the answer was another Prince Charming. I still didn't understand that the answers were inside me.
Sadly, it took me another decade to find clarity. Even with my education finished and my graduate work in women's counseling, the answers didn't come. I was teaching school and on a salary of $11,000 a year. With no financial help, it was up to me. One thing that helped was I would feed my children dinner and wait until they were done eating. Whatever was left on their plates was mine to eat. I knew this couldn't go on. Then one very sunny day, as I was swinging my son in the tire swing, it came to me. It was simple, really, and had been there all along.
Finally, I realized I needed to quit seeking the answers on my own. There must be other women who have had experiences similar to mine and were searching for answers, too. I needed to talk with women like me. Women like us. I needed to hear their stories. We needed to come together and deep dive into intimate, honest discussions about our worth as women. To learn from one another about where our lives were going, including our passions and our dreams. And we knew we needed to gain an understanding of our inner gut-felt attitudes. To find who we are and how we get to the next steps of our lives.
The Breakthrough
And then that's when I met Connie. My first ever mentor. I didn't realize Connie was my mentor or even what a mentor was at that time in my life.
Connie and I were room mothers at my daughter Cathy's first-grade class. We both wanted the same things; independence, freedom, equality, respect, secure futures. And we knew other women did, too.
Realizing we were both after the same thing, Connie and I published the first woman's magazine in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Indianapolis Woman. We were both on our way, fulfilling our purpose, putting action to our passion.
direction and bringing other women along with us. Connie and I were taking action to teach women to see their power, stand up for their rights, and begin a lifelong journey of meeting, sharing, and leading women into authentic lives.
Our magazine turned into a television show and a radio show. We were getting traction. Our meetings and planning were at my dining room table with the family dog at our feet and my one-year-old son, AJ, on my lap.
Along with reaching out and bringing along other women, I began to understand pieces of me. I began to find myself at a deeper level. It was my first breakthrough. And without knowing it, I now see that it was at this time I pointed my life toward what would be my legacy. I was championing women and learning about myself along the way.
Years later came two more mentors; Cancer and Sally.
Cancer became my next mentor. It stopped me in my tracks. My friends took over for me, and my family was there. It was a year-long suspension of my current life and indeed an eventual survey of my soul. I had the worries so many people living with cancer feel. What about my children? Wait, I'm not ready to stop my life. I put my dreams of a non-profit for women's growth in a little imaginary box with, in my minds eye, beautiful jewels and shells and feathers. I knew I would come back to it one day. But I had to get well first. I got a lot of clarity during that time, but Sally (and the doctors, of course) taught me how to begin the world that had been waiting for me all along.
"Linda, don't you have a charity?" Sally asked me. Well, yes, I did. But I had stopped in the beginning stages when I was ill. Sally had made nonprofit work her life. So now she was here to teach me. And we did it together—the beginning of the Women Like Us Foundation. Fast forward, to today, my work brings women out of the slums of Africa into the Women Like Us Center for educational skills and economic stability in their lives. So the empowerment of women continues.
The Return to Me
My life so far has been far from perfect. But along the way, I've learned to re-frame the past difficult life stories that were still running around in my brain- and let them go; live my truth; set my boundaries; let go of old limiting beliefs; find my true worth as a woman and continue with confidence and energy.
It is my life's work to champion women.
I'm thrilled to be helping women one on one as well as in groups. It fits my life's work. And I feel amazingly blessed to have deep discussions with women I have come to know intimately and respect completely during this stage in my life. I am using this next chapter of my life to facilitate their personal growth and help them create their most confident selves and, in turn, create their most astounding futures.
COACHING
I am honored to be coaching women to share their personal life stories and use them as a vehicle for clarity and healing toward a fulfilling and confident life. I've used my own life experiences and personal legacy as a roadmap to my own future, a source of healing and clarity for myself, and know that as life moves forward, there are ample opportunities to actualize dreams, passions, and long-time personal goals. My education in Public Speaking and English, plus my graduate work in Women's Counseling and additional coaching certifications, allow me to celebrate women's past and help them get clear and re-frame what's next.
