I’m having coffee with my 21 year old self. The girl who is lifeguarding by day and hustling by night as a waitress. The girl who is so incredibly frustrated when yet another friend who has moved into NYC having found a great job and starting their life. She doesn’t think she’s ever going to travel or find a job that will get her out of her parent’s house.

Live out your dreams

This is what I’m telling 21 year old Paige, long and lean in jeans, a tee, hair pulled back into a ponytail, laughing so easily. Be patient, you have the capacity to change your life in ways you can’t even imagine yet. You’re going to find an amazing job with Conde Nast, move into the city and love this whole big, exciting life you’re starting. You’re going to be living out your dreams and, crazy as it may sound, within a year you’re going to walk away from it all.

Following your intuition and heart isn’t always safe

Everyone around you will advise you not to. They’ll tell you you’re throwing everything you wanted away and why would you do that? They think you’re being foolish and risky. You aren’t.

This will be the first of so many times in your life that you let your heart take over and follow it. You’re listening to your intuition and I’m so darn proud of you because you’ve stepped into fearlessness. Instead of saying what if and thinking of all the reasons you shouldn’t. You’re starting to say yes, thinking why not?! THIS is a turning point. You run off to Club Med Martinique to become a hostess.

Stepping into fearlessness

I’m going to call it your WHAT IS SHE DOING?! era, but little do you know, that era starts a domino effect that lasts well beyond an era and into a lifetime.

You’ll go on to endless adventures, learning to speak multiple languages, traveling the world and starting businesses. You meet your very own Mr. Paige P. who’s your rock and you have these amazing kids who become your whole life.

Nothing is ever a “sure thing”

At one point, you walk away from your enviable career as a luxury global event planner to reinvent yourself once again into the dream you’ve had since sixteen. You step out of “the sure thing” job and walk into the unknown because that’s where your heart is pulling.

You purchase a camera and start photographing, getting closer and closer to your vision of what, you’re not sure, it’s just out of grasp. THEN, because you persist and persist and persist you find IT.

You rework your website, marketing, stop taking family clients and become a Senior’s Photographer in a market that has absolutely no idea what that means. You don’t care, because it’s exactly what you want to do. Guess what? You’ll have clients throughout the state and beyond hiring you because you’ve built not just a business but a sought after brand.

Living by example and creating legacy memories for others

And here we are Paige, me speaking to you at 21 between your shifts of lifeguarding and waitressing. You’re not stuck, you haven’t even begun yet. You’re going to live this magical life and the best part is, that as a photographer you’ll have started a legacy for hundreds of families and girls by creating amazing memories for them.

My next AND

We’re facing each other, coffee in hand, and speaking to you has me so excited for my current AND. I’ll bet you’re thinking that being a photographer is my forever career. I love photography AND I’m now sharing all of my knowledge and experience by mentoring other creatives on how to create a dream business that makes it impossible for dream clients to ignore.

Being multi-hyphenate creates a rich life

Never stop following your heart and intuition, never stop persisting even when it’s hard, like right now at 21, when you’re thinking you’re stuck. This will pass because you persist, you’re fearless and you keeping saying AND…you can be a waitress and lifeguard, and world traveler and multi-lingual and a global event planner and four time business owner and published photographer and mentor and brand strategist and wife and mother.

As we’re facing each other, me in my wide legged, ripped jeans, adidas and cashmere sweater, hair pulled back in a ponytail, we’re both smiling and laughing because it all sounds so ridiculous. It really isn’t! Because we both, at 21 AND now, at this stage of my career and life know EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. We’re living it. Here are the life lessons I remind her of, one more time, before I have to run off for a photoshoot.

Life Lessons I want my younger self to always remember

Believe in yourself and know that everything is possible.

Follow your heart and intuition because the more you use it the more it will lead you to dreams that you once thought of as ridiculous.

Persist. It’s going to be hard, really hard at times. There will be times when you want to quit. Step away and ask yourself, If I stop will I regret it? Persist if the answer is yes.

Being fearless requires you to have blinders on because there will always be outsiders who try to talk you into a safer route.

Don’t allow yourself to be just one thing. LIVE in the AND. We all have so many different facets to ourselves. Become the multi-hyphenate, become the person who is this AND this…

Be 100% you, ponytail, jeans and full of laughter. The world needs more sunshine. Keep spreading it.

I can’t wait to have coffee with my 21 year old self again to update her on my next big adventure and to let her know how much fun her big beautiful life will continue to be.

Did this blog help inspire you? If so, let me know in the comments. I’d love to here your AND…