As I make progress with my first book and draw ever-closer to my publish date for Boy Without Instructions, I’m beginning to realize the magnitude of that future day. The moment my book becomes available for purchase will be the moment at which my personal purpose and dreams intersect. It’s now within my field of view on the horizon and that’s exhilarating.

So far, mine has been a life of searching for purpose. The kind of meaningful purpose that makes an impact on others, people outside one’s scope of responsibility. I’ve been out of college, out in the “real world,” for almost twenty years now, but I’ve struggled to find real purpose in what I am doing. I loved communications and advertising work, but the only purpose there was to improve someone’s profits. I enjoy working as a Realtor to help families buy and sell homes, but that hasn’t been as rewarding as I expected either.

The one real place where I’ve been able to make an impact is with parents of children with ADHD. If you asked me twenty years ago what I’d be doing now, I did not have any idea. I had just dropped my biology major due to a lack of understanding of physics and was swimming unknown waters. ADHD was certainly not on my radar. Ten years ago, a career in real estate had just started and I wasn’t yet concerned about my purpose in life. I was only about to turn thirty and didn’t feel the pressure of fulfilling life’s goals yet. I had two young children and molding their lives felt like the only purpose that mattered at that time. ADHD was still not on my radar.

 

 

Five years ago though, my life took a dramatic and unexpected turn when my son was diagnosed with ADHD. My momma instinct to “fix” it kicked in to overdrive. I was all-consumed by ADHD and helping my smart, sweet boy succeed despite his disability. I started a blog, and then a Facebook page, and then a funny thing happened — it took on a life of its own and purpose began to drive actions around ADHD. I now had an audience of parents looking to me to share what I knew about ADHD and what I had learned parenting my son.

Just two days ago, I received an email from a parent who had just read one of my blog articles, thanking me for “what you are doing for the ADHD community.” I’ve had other emails thanking me for my blog and support network throughout the last few years, but the timing of this email and the progress of my book collided to strike a chord. That was my ah-ha moment that being vocal about ADHD and parenting a special needs child is my purpose. It started as a selfish need to fulfill a decades-old dream to be a writer, but intersected with activism and advocacy to finally reveal my purpose.

It’s fulfilling and exhilarating when it all finally comes together.