The One Life Change That Helped Real Women Take Control of Their Lives
As a single mom reeling from a surprise divorce, the last thing I needed was to have another child, so I went back on birth control for the first time in 10 years. It's freed me up to date and have sex again without having to worry about getting pregnant. The guy I’m seeing now actually had a vasectomy, but he never bothered to schedule a follow-up to make sure that he’s shooting blanks; birth control gives me total peace of mind either way. Plus, it’s regulated my periods and eased their severity, which is a huge bonus. —Julie, 47, Connecticut
“I Started My Dream Business”
My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We settled in Brooklyn after college and became totally wrapped up in our careers: He was a high school teacher and administrator, and I was a writer. For years we dreamed of opening a combination bookstore, bar, and coffee shop that would allow us to combine all our favorite things and spend more time together. But it just wasn’t doable in Brooklyn, where the rents are sky-high.
So we moved two hours north, to a city we’d passed through many times while road-tripping over the years. We loved the people, the proximity to the mountains, and how affordable it was. We crowd-funded, got a small-business loan, and found an eighteenth-century building to rent, and in November 2016 we opened Rough Draft Bar & Books. We’ve been busy, thank God, since the day we opened. I still write, usually from the bar while multitasking on a million other things.
It’s funny, we bought a huge Victorian house with six bedrooms, and everyone keeps asking us when we’re going to fill it up. I’m on birth control because we’re still undecided about whether we want kids. If we do have them, it definitely wouldn’t be for a year or two, because running a new business is awesome but exhausting. —Amanda, 35, New York
“I Quit My Job to Travel”
A couple of years ago, someone pointed out that you get only 18 summers with your kids, and it really stuck with my husband and me. At the time, two-thirds of those summers had already come and gone with the oldest of our four children.
He and I had talked about traveling around the country, and we realized we wanted to do it with our kids, not after we’d retired. So we sold our house, quit our jobs, packed up all our stuff, educated ourselves about homeschooling (I’m a teacher), and bought an RV, which we nicknamed Periwinkle. Oh, and we started a blog, Four Kids, Four Corners.
We’re only a few weeks into our adventure, and it’s been an adjustment for sure. We have no washer, dryer, or dishwasher, we don’t always get cell service, and the six of us are sharing less than 300 square feet. It can be hard to enjoy the journey when you’re worried about things like laundry and where you’re driving to next.
On the flipside, I can clean our whole place in 15 minutes, our cost of living is cheap, and the kids are spending a ton of time together. We know we can go back to our old life at any time, but for now, we’re excited to trade that stability for gorgeous views, fresh air, new experiences, and making memories. —Jeri, 39, Kansas
