“Birthing years”- I first heard this phrase, in referance to myself, from an orthepedist telling me that my knee wasn’t going to get any better- that the cartiledge started to wear down after women hit a “certain age.” I was either 24 years old.

Have you heard of the quarter-life-crisis? I was in the midst of one. I had just begun a new job, seemingly my dream job as the Executive Assistant to the President of a record label that I had been hoping to work at for the past 6 years. I had been married for a year and a half and we were just finally starting to find a balance between my husbands all consuming career and my all consuming need for attention. I was training to walk a marathon, thus the knee problems and the visit to the orthepedist.

My Executive Assistant position was the 4 job I had had in the past 3 years. I had gone from basically being the accounting department for a small company that the owner was essentially stealing money from to the office manager of a start up company, where I quit 4 weeks in because the owner began taking money from the company for personal expenses. I then spent a few months unemployed and bored out of my mind trying to figure out a way to have a career in writing. Exploring going back to school, trying to find a way to free lance- this was before I knew about blogs and the power the can have. After realizing I was going crazy without some structure in my life, I finally got a job adminstered scholarships. I didn’t love the job, but other than a few co-workers who I really didn’t like, it was fine. I made good money, I lost 50 lbs because I started exercising and joined weight watchers. I was pretty happy, and when I found out about the label job I actually declined to apply for it until the 3rd time my pastor pulled me aside and said “Amanda, you REALLY should apply for this job.”