How Many Lives Have You Lived Within This One Life?

At the ‘girl dinner’ I was recently at (read about it in my previous blog post), after we each shared vulnerably and completely unfiltered, one of the girls looked around and said,
"Wow, we’ve all lived so many lives within this one life. And look how much they have shaped who we are and how we show up."

And that really made me stop for a moment, because yes, we have.

I’ve been thinking about it since…
We really do live multiple lives in one lifetime.
Each chapter with its own identity, lessons, endings, and beginnings.

When I look back at my life, it’s like flipping through the pages of a book where the main character keeps evolving, sometimes by choice, sometimes by force.

Let’s take a look:

I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, shaped by structure, rules, and routine.

I left home at 16, navigating the world on my own, finishing high school, working, and living in a type of freedom I had never experienced before.

I spent 10 years chasing a diagnosis for what turned out to be endometriosis, battling so much pain and uncertainty while also building a successful career in tech sales. For nine of those years, I showed up in boardrooms in cities across North America while quietly managing a chronic illness no one could name.

Eventually, the startup I worked for sold, and that’s when I decided (inspired by my boyfriend, now husband) that it was time to take the leap into entrepreneurship.

What started as a social media marketing business eventually became a full-blown advertising agency, the one I now co-own and run with my husband.

I struggled with infertility and miscarriage.
I experienced grief that I couldn’t put into words.
I experienced burnout from allowing myself to be fully immersed in ‘hustle culture’ and being available to everyone 24/7.
I became a ‘yes person’ who felt like she was failing anytime she had to say no.

Eventually, my husband and I moved to a small city on an island, chasing space, clarity, and a slower pace of life that allowed us to finally breathe again.

I came to terms with the reality that I will never birth a child, a quiet, slow shatter, but also a decision that eventually freed me at the same time.

And here I am now, in yet another chapter.
Not starting over… but carrying forward every version of who I’ve been.
Wiser. Softer. Stronger. Clearer.

Because the thing is, we don’t just live once.
We live over and over again, in the same body, with the same heart, but through completely different chapters that shape us into who we’re becoming.

Every version of me has had a purpose.
She taught me how to pivot.
How to hold grief and joy in the same breath.
How to trust the unknown.
How to speak up, slow down, and choose myself.

And I know there are more versions of me to come.
More lives still to live within this one life.

So if you’re in the thick of a chapter that feels unfamiliar, or if you’re mourning the end of a life you once knew, I hope you remember this:

You’re not lost.
You’re just evolving.
And you’re allowed to keep becoming.