The Meaning of March
March is a special month for me. In recent years, it has coincided with some major moments in my personal and professional life.
In March 2020, amidst the early days of the pandemic, I started my formal coach training at Northwestern University. I remember tuning into the Zoom meeting for our cohort’s kickoff event and knowing something important was beginning. Over the next year, the 23 folks in that group plus our faculty became a family, cheering each other on and holding each other up as we grew, together and individually, in our skills and our self-awareness, as coaches, leaders, and humans.
The following March, this same group received our certifications and celebrated the journey we’d taken to becoming coaches (see our smiling faces, below). That celebration – also on Zoom – was one of the most meaningful experiences I have had in my adult life. When I began the certificate program a year prior, I could not have imagined how deeply transformative this process would be. To witness the development of my own capabilities, sense of self, and identity as a coach was something I wasn’t prepared for. And it was made exponentially more special by seeing the others in my cohort doing the same. I was – and still am – so proud of us for daring to enter this profession of coaching with conviction and courage, in the midst of an uncertain world.
There are a few moments in my life that I can pinpoint where I had an overwhelming sense of being exactly where I was meant to be. March 2021 was one of those moments. I knew, deep down, that I needed to leap into coaching in a more dedicated way. Not as a side gig, not as an occasional conversation in my day job, but as the primary work I would be doing. March 2021 was also when I remembered how to dream. It was good timing.
This experience coincided with another major moment in March 2021, when my husband and I had our first conversations about moving abroad. We were on a road trip, driving from Chicago to visit family and friends in Maryland and North Carolina, and we had a lot of time in the car. I remember the overwhelming combination of excitement about this new possibility for our life and the fear about whether I would be able to achieve my professional dream of working as a coach in this new life plan.
Fast forward to March 2022 and we have been in our new home in Amsterdam, Netherlands for just over 100 days. We are settling into life here and enjoying some sunny weeks after a lot of rain. I am working full time in my coaching business, Evergreen Coaching & Consulting, after building it up slowly for the past 12 months. Best of all, I am working with wonderful clients, who are asking important questions about their work and life, and taking steps to move closer to their own dreams.
Don’t get me wrong – these are the highlights – with lots and lots of challenges in between. But I can’t help wanting to mark this moment and sit with the sense of meaning that washes over me as I reflect on all that March has brought me.
My deepest gratitude goes out to the many folks who were part of this journey: the 2020-2021 OLCC cohort, the OLCC faculty and coaching staff, the Collective Care circles led by Sage Gawd Collective and Taylor Moon, my husband, family, friends, colleagues, and clients.