The community I didn’t have (but you can)

Over the past month, I’ve shared my story of leaving academia. But really, it wasn’t about leaving. It was about unlearning. About remembering. About creating the space to ask:

“What kind of work and life restores me instead of depletes me?”

It took years. It took breakdowns and break opens. It took healing, play, and creativity.

And it took community.

Because you can’t reimagine your life in isolation. You need mirrors. Witnesses. Safe places to speak the unspeakable things, like:

“I want more.”
“I’m tired of over-functioning.”
“I’m allowed to not know yet.”

When I was in the middle of my career pivot, I didn’t have a name for what I was doing.

I wasn’t quite “building a business,” until I was. I wasn’t “leaving academia,” until I was.
At first, I was just trying to reclaim the parts of myself I had buried to survive within the systems and relationships that were toxic for my soul and kept back my impact.

I was journaling at sunrise. Wandering gardens and collecting metaphors. Following curiosity instead of credentials.

And I kept wishing there was a place for people like me -  folks who weren’t in crisis, but weren’t ready to go back to business as usual either.

 So I built it.

It’s called Cultivate Connection, and you’re invited to join us.

This is for the ones on the edge of something.
The ones who feel the shift, but haven’t named it yet.
The ones who need a soft landing to explore the truth of who they’re becoming.

You don’t need to figure it all out.
You don’t need to perform clarity.
You just need space to reconnect to what’s real.