Jessica Dawson

I just gave my most vulnerable keynote.

Four seasons. Four women. Different ages, different ethnicities, different lives. And every one of them was a version of something I’ve lived or watched the women around me live.

This one wasn’t about research. It wasn’t about stats. It was about stories, because stories are what make change relatable. Women watching in virtual rooms alongside each other. Women tuning in alone from wherever they were. All of us in a season we don’t always name out loud.

Here’s what I keep coming back to: we normalize the heaviness of the seasons we’re in. We carry them in solitude. We call it “fine.”

And we rarely get the pause to notice, let alone the pause to catch our footing.

That’s what this was. Not a speech. A pause.

You don’t have to move through your season alone. But you do have to stop and see it.

#change
#seasonsofchange
#transition
#loneliness
#heavy