“Finding My Pink in a Sea of Pink”
Guest Post: Written by Shannon Woodworth
I didn’t think I lost my pink when I first became a mother. I’ve wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember and motherhood has fulfilled me from the beginning. But two things can exist at the same time. You can be both fulfilled and exhausted. Fulfilled and complacent. Fulfilled and whatever other adjective describes a more tired, dull version of yourself.
Do you remember that vibrant, energized you who was confident in everything before she was buried under diapers, deadlines and the daily weight of life? That’s your “pink.” It’s a term I’ve come to love, borrowed from flamingos who literally lose their color while caring for their young and regain it as they reclaim space in their environment.
I didn’t think I lost my pink until I started getting it back; and mine came back in the most unexpected way. Surrounded in a sea of pink when I started my job at Susan G. Komen (Komen), I found my pink in an early-thirties career change that never would have happened without a series of events that felt like a hurricane.
Career Change
I received a dual degree from the University of New Haven in Music Industry and Business. I completed my undergraduate studies in three years before receiving a one-year M.B.A. with a concentration in marketing. Right after graduation, I moved to Nashville, TN with a day-job at a cupcake shop and an afternoon hustle of walking Music Row with my resume in hand. For ten years, I worked my way up through the ranks until I was in my dream position… or so I thought.
While I love marketing to my core and would truly have fun marketing just about anything, something was missing in my career after I had my daughter. I was constantly adding projects onto my plate that were philanthropic in some way because I was chasing the feeling of giving back. If I was going to be out of the house and away from my little girl more often than not because of work, I wanted my work to matter in a significant way. Hindsight is 20/20 and I’m not naive to just how young thirty actually is, but the idea of changing careers after I invested so much time felt daunting and just plain scary.
Taking the Leap
Coincidentally, at the same time of being a new mom and wanting something different for my career, I was caught up in some mass lay-offs at the company where I was working. It wasn’t easy, but I had so many people tell me I was going to see it as the biggest blessing in disguise and they couldn’t have been more right.
I have always been a supporter of Komen and its mission. I lost both of my grandmothers to breast cancer and completed many walks and fundraisers for Komen throughout my adolescence. In fact, when I realized postpartum that I wanted to change careers, Komen was the first company I mentioned to my husband.
Fast forward a few months and I had non-profit job alerts set to come to my phone. I was sitting at a gas pump waiting for my tank to fill up when I got the daily email of new job postings and a marketing role at Komen was the first on the list. I don’t know how to explain it, I’ve only had this feeling a few other times in my life, but it just felt like fate and I knew it was the job for me. I pulled into a parking space and filled out the application from my phone. It was in that very moment, with the hopeful promise from a job description that seemed like it was ripped from my vision board, that I felt a little bit of my pink coming back.
Being Celebrated for Who You Are
Throughout my interviews and initial conversations with people when I first started my role at Komen, it was clear I was at a company that celebrates people for who they are. I wasn’t used to that. There are stigmas in the music industry and though so much has changed and so many strides have been made, I still felt like I was treated differently when I chose daycare pick-ups over happy hours.
At Komen, I wasn’t only celebrated for being a mom, I was valued. A vast contrast to the world I came from where I was the only mom on my team, I was now one of hundreds of women at a company who were juggling a career and motherhood all while being kind and working towards a greater purpose. My pink was streaming back.
Finding My Pink in a Sea of Pink
For me, I realized my pink was lost in feeling like I needed to be two different versions of myself in motherhood. When I came to Komen, I wasn’t trying to prove I was still valuable in the workplace as a mother. Instead, I was showing just how much value being a mother added.
Being a mom has deepened my empathy, it has taught me to slow down in the most intentional way and it has far-increased any previous ability I had to multitask tenfold. Working for a company that not only understands that, but values the differences we all bring to the table has completely impacted my quality of life for the better. In the stress of past jobs I used to think “we aren’t saving lives”, but here at Komen, we actually are, while also maintaining work-life balance for everyone working so hard toward that mission.
The other week I was talking to a friend of mine that has known me since I was ten. She has seen me in every stage of life. Without any other context, she looked at me and said “you got your pink back” and I realized then, she was right.
Posted in: Mothers & Work