I believe in curating positive social media feeds. I’m on social media to consume uplifting content and engage in dialogue. I’m often flabbergasted when I see women, who’re otherwise thriving in successful careers, act like their lives began when they became a fiancée or wife! It’s almost as if their identities depend on these titles. Nothing else matters. Their entire personas and social media pages become engulfed in the “I am a Mrs.” phenomenon. They stop posting content related to their own interests and hobbies. They only post content about their fiancés or husbands. To clarify, I’m not anti-love, relationships or marriage. In fact, I’m a hopeless romantic. I love to see people in happy and healthy unions. Marriage is important to me. However, I know I wasn’t placed on Earth to only become a wife. As women, we have so much to offer the world. We’re still fighting to break down and move past barriers, so it’s disheartening to see women who’ve achieved certain levels of success, turn into the “my fiancé/husband is my everything and everything revolves around him” type of women. I’m not encouraging women to hold back in any capacity. I’m simply acknowledging a pattern that I’ve seen. I’ve witnessed a lot of professional women lose their identity once engaged or married and, sadly, when it ended, they were devastated and left in shambles. They didn’t know how to pick up the pieces. Many of them admitted they felt like failures in life because they were single again. Since they didn’t take the time to nurture any interests or friendships outside of their marriages, their careers were derailed or stagnated, businesses deteriorated, friendships ruined, self-esteem shattered – and they found themselves having to start all over.  

Ladies, men are fickle! While it’s unpopular to say, nobody is guaranteed to get or stay married. God put too much in you for you to NOT leave a mark on the world. Don’t get me wrong, being a wife and mother is rewarding and beautiful. However, your passions are still important and valid. Please remember there are gifts within you that the world needs, especially in corporate nursing! There is nothing wrong with desiring love, companionship or marriage, and if you want that, I fully support you. On the contrary, there’s also nothing wrong with embracing the single life. Just remember:

“Don’t let what he wants eclipse what you need. He’s very dreamy, but he’s not the sun. You are!” ~ Christina Yang played by Sandra Oh on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

YOU are the prize, my dear. Never forget that!