Life is short. Do it your way.

About five years ago, my third-born was still an infant, I was writing a PhD thesis, and planning a post-doc, all while being a slightly depressed stay-at-home-mother and all that.

One day, after exhausting several options for applications in the US, at labs where I thought I wanted to go, and hearing the, "You're great, but we just don't have the research funding to pay for your post-doc here," Fritz and I cracked open a Dutch beer after dinner and had a conversation that went like this:

Me: "What if we did go to the Netherlands? We've been talking about it for years and thinking it would be too disruptive to the kids, but..." 

Him: "It wouldn't be. We'd make it work."

Me (taking another sip of the rather potent Trappist Ale): "I agree. Let's do it."

Why the Netherlands? Because it had been the unattainable option. It had been the place where my academic hero (and future supervisor) resided, whom I'd been citing for years, and who would eventually receive my email and be all-too-kind about helping me figure out a way to get there.

The rest is really history. The two years we spent there were some of the best years of our lives so far. The kids - the opposite of disrupted: Inspired, challenged, allowed to fall in love with European art and history, made to believe that dreams come true.

When it was time to end the journey, we had a similarly limitless amount of possibilities to come home to. Canada, the vast. 

We chose a place close to my family. A place we could pursue another dream: living on the land, having sheep and chickens and all the rest, and green fields for the kids to thread their bare feet through. There was never really much of a question. Even if it meant walking away from academia.

Because it meant becoming a photographer. Not on the side, not as a hobby, but as an honest-to-goodness necessary part of life, with all the creativity & freedom it would bring.

Our journey surprises some people; it shocks others. But I don't see why it should. Life is so short. We are lucky to live in a place & time where we can own our choices and be happy.

If you're also lucky to have choices, don't be scared. Do life your way.