Hey. I’m Julie. Recovering Good Girl, retired People Pleaser, and recent convert to the Church of the Wild Soul.

I was the straight-A student, the kid all my friends’ parents trusted, the reliable babysitter, the grad student who was of course going to show up to teach an 8am class, the spouse who showed up for every crisis, mental or physical, major or minor.

It wasn’t that I never did anything unexpected. I hared off on a cross-country road trip the summer between college and grad school when cell phones didn’t exist and we lived by a copy of Campsites For $5 or Less. I fled academia, despite all of my friends being in academia, despite having spent my 20s getting a doctorate and then a tenure-track job, because I hated it, no matter how many people told me it was a dream career. I dove gleefully into the Enneagram and everything it brings with it.

But basically, I Did What Was Expected of Me. I Did the Right Thing. I Made People Happy.

And it made me sick. Exhausted. Depleted. Angry and bitter and resentful and despairing. Not that anyone knew that, of course. That definitely wasn’t what I was supposed to do. 

Today, I’m trying something different. Church of the Wild Soul, y’all. Let’s see what happens.