Hello there! I’m Molly.
I’m a 40-something mom, finance graduate student, and aspiring author who dreams of living in an RV one day. When I was 8 or 9, I told my mom that’s what I wanted. I wanted to live in an RV, see the country, and write. Somewhere during the hustle and bustle of growing up and living life, I forgot all about it, until recently.
The Adventure Begins
I grew up in Southeast Missouri, in a college town alongside the Mississippi River, and spent my youth riding bikes, climbing trees, and my summers playing softball and swimming at the pool with my best friend, and, once or twice, risking the currents for a dip in the ‘Sip (gross). I played percussion in high school, maintained B-Honor Roll, and graduated with an average GPA, somewhere around the middle of my class.
After graduating, I skipped going to college at home so I could go live with a boyfriend and attend a private business college in St. Louis (dumbest decision ever). Three months later, he and I broke up, and I dropped out of school and moved back home, deciding that college wasn’t in the cards for me. I worked at the local hospital, and spent most of my nights drinking and playing pool at the local pool hall. These days were some of the most fun I had had in my life, nearly all of them spent with my best friend. Then I met some guy online through a geeky MSN Group. We started dating long-distance and I left my hometown to move in with him, excited to see new places and start a new life.
From left to right: High school graduate in 2003, lunch after swimming in 2005, and a metal concert in 2008.
New Places & Experiences
He joined the military, we got married, and I followed him all over the country from the Northeast, to the Southwest, to the Pacific Northwest. During all these moves, I chose not to make friends because I didn’t expect us to stay very long. But in the PNW, I wound up setting down some roots and it was the longest we spent in one place. I met all sorts of awesome people and did all sorts of cool things, and I feel like this is where I finally bloomed into who I was and gained all of my confidence. I played pool and came close to going semi-professional, placing 9th in the country in 9-ball. I learned photography, and one of my photos chosen as a semi-finalist in a NASA photo contest.
Those years were a rollercoaster. I had an early miscarriage and was diagnosed with PCOS. A couple years after, I had our first child, followed by a second a couple years later, and the cool things I used to do became a faded memory. My full-time job became a mother, and everything else took a backseat. We left military life behind, and things started to get hard. My husband found work on the East Coast, and I had to say goodbye to everyone I had met, leaving the PNW heartbroken.
From left to right: APA Singles Championships in 2013, Tacoma Ferry in 2015, and pregnant with my oldest in 2014.
Resentment & Separation
We made it to the East Coast, and I hated it. I hated leaving the PNW. I hated renting a house in a place I had no connection with. I felt like there was nothing to take pictures of (except D.C. and foliage), nobody to play pool with, and I felt even more lost and disconnected. I felt that I had no identity, no sense of self, and no help from someone who was becoming more and more of a stranger.
Another move led us to where we are now. More job loss and stress followed just before the pandemic, along with more blaming, and more fighting. We had stopped being a team, stopped being a couple, and ultimately, the concept of divorce became a reality. Separation, while still living together, is our current situation until the world calms down and I can get out on my own. In the meantime, I went back to school, received my Bachelor’s in Finance, and now am pursuing my Master’s.
I have spent the last few years healing from the past decade of emotional pain, medical hardships, and in the last year, the passing of both my best friend, and my four-legged bestie. I have invested time into rediscovering the identity I put on the backburner, and started leading my own life instead of following someone else’s. The past few years have put me through the ringer, especially 2025, but one of the few things, besides my children, and a new start, is the dream I told my mom about all those years ago. So why not rekindle that old dream within myself if it’s what I want?
Healing & Moving Forward
So here I am, in my 40s, looking ahead to a new life of my own creation. Not a life that someone else is building for me, not someone’s life that I’m tagging along for, but one of my very own. The grand adventure I strive for is the one that takes me to see the places I missed, to enjoy quiet nights under the stars, and to write with a beautiful view of an ocean or mountain.
On my journey toward this grand adventure, there are a number of epic side quests, some that will help me progress closer toward that adventure, and some that may take me off the path a little here and there, but are still important. I’ll be sharing the various side quests and my personal anecdotes along my heroine’s journey, and I hope you enjoy tagging along for it. Just don’t forget that you have your own journey to lead, alright?
-M.
“You’re supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for god’s sake!” – Iris, The Holiday.
Top left to top right: My bestie & I in 2010, 2017, and 2018.
Bottom left to bottom right: My four-legged bestie in 2016, 2017, and 2021.
I will forever love and miss you both.