Am I Deviantly Disappointing?

I thought for my introduction to Deviancy 101 I would tell you a story about a recent event I attended.  It was a lecture on civic engagement hosted by a fellowship for young college graduates.  The fellowship--a combination of rigorous academic study and an internship--is very similar to a program that I had the opportunity to participate in while I was still a college student.

I attended the lecture to a) be inspired, and b) to talk with current fellows about life and their plans for the future and their perspective on the world.  And of course I ended up talking about what I'm up to these days (blogging), which led to conversations about what I write about (being deviantly domesticated).

I couldn't help but wonder, as I talked to these ambitious young people, what they thought of my life choices.  I mean, it was not so long ago that I was in their very shoes, exploring my career options and thinking seriously of a life in public leadership (aka politics) or non-profit management.  Less than eight years later, I was working from home and writing about...well...home.  I wondered if they deemed me a disappointment, as if I'd somehow traded-in my higher aspirations for domestic life.

I found myself asking some serious questions while driving home.  Was I really a disappointment to my education and opportunities (I had lots of both)?  Was I making a mistake by leaving the workforce to build a career from home?  Was I sacrificing opportunities for leadership by taking this unconventional path?

Culturally I suppose that I feel some pressure to answer "yes" to those questions.  But I can't shake the conviction that my "lifestyle makeover" really was the right choice.  Choosing to deviate from the norm has been liberating (albeit a bit challenging).  And over the next several weeks I want to talk about how those deviant choices might actually open doors (rather than close them) for leadership and financial success.  Call it Deviancy 101.

To read more about my personal journey into deviancy, click here.

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And stay tuned later this week for more Election Exercises (my ways of getting ready for the vote), and my first Book Sleuth review!