Recently, I was walking through university open houses with my daughters. As we talked about programs, imagining what their lives might look like in just a few short years, I had this moment where it hit me.

Who am I going to be when they go?

Their successful launch is everything I have planned for since the moment I locked eyes with these beautiful babies, but now the time is getting closer. There is a grief and an identity shift that I need to go through myself. I had been so focused on them that I hadn’t thought much about myself.

But if you are like me, it doesn’t end there. As I get closer to turning 50 in May, I am finding that so many pillars of my identity are starting to shift all at once.

So when I step back and look at it all, I can see what’s happening…