An Open Letter to My Daughters: Love, Life, and Lessons Learned

Motherhood is a beautiful thing! It is filled with many highs and a few lows but ultimately it is a beautiful thing. Although I am a mother of four (two boys and two girls) the purpose of this blog post is to share a special open letter to my daughters. The reason I decided to make it an open letter is because I know that there are a lot of mothers that can relate to the things that I am about share. You see, I am not a stay-at-home mom, in fact, at the time that I am writing this post this would be the most time I have ever stayed at home and it’s only because we are in the middle of a pandemic.

When I decided to have children there was not this pivotal moment in my career that allowed a gap for me to slow down on my professional goals. In fact, with each pregnancy, my professional goals grew even more. I often joke that for every kid I have I also have a degree or certification in the same year that they were born.

So this post is to talk about ambition and motherhood.It may be controversial to some mothers, however, I am a firm believer that as a woman with ambition bringing children into this world does not have to slow or cancel your professional goals. I believe that in order to obtain true happiness and peace in your life you have to go after the goals and

dreams that you set for yourself no matter how difficult they may seem.

Now if you are a mother that strives to be the best mother that you can be and have no other professional goals ----- (I applaud you) but this post is not really for you. There are plenty of blogs out there that focus only on motherhood. This blog post and 99% of my future blog post are geared towards mothers who want it all, motherhood, successful relationships, and an exciting career that fulfills them each and every day. And as a result of mindset, this blog post is also for mothers that want to teach their daughters to have successful careers, fulfilling relationships, and children of their own (one day) and still enjoy life.

At the time of writing this blog post, my daughters are currently age 13 and 14. They are competitive tennis players and published kid authors of a special children's book entitled "Serve It to Me Too" (follow them @onealsistahs on Instagram and Facebook or pick up a copy of their children's book--- #shamelessplug:). However, what most people don't understand is that their current success is not by coincidence. My husband and I deliberately support their goals and dreams so that they understand that anything they set their mind to and work hard for can be achieved. They also host an IG tennis Tea Talk live show on Instagram to not only learn from the best college tennis players across America but also to be guided and advised by their mentors. In so many words we keep them busy and productive so they don't find themselves in trouble or wandering down the wrong road. But the truth is, very soon they will be adults and will venture out into this crazy world filled with liars, manipulators, and just outright crazy people. What my husband and I hope to instill in them is ambition, leveled-headiness, and the ability to make good decisions that will lead them to peace, happiness, and personal success.

Now let’s get to the letter:

Dear Daughters (@onealsistahs),

Let me first start out by saying that I am so very proud of both of you. Both of you are a blessing to your dad and me and nothing or no one could ever change that. Since the moment you both came into our lives our days and nights have been filled with happiness and absolute amazement from the joy that you bring us. We equally support you in all of your endeavors from learning multiple languages, playing the violin, competing in tennis tournaments, and now becoming authors/illustrators of your very own book. We have sheltered you in a sense from all of the foolishness of the world, but soon you will leap and we pray that you fly high. But before you leap we have many words, advice, wisdom, and lessons to share with you and I will try my best to articulate a few below:

Lesson One - Pay Attention to People: There is an old saying "Surround yourself with people who will take you higher". There are so many people in this world who will want to bring you down, so that is why this is lesson number one. Pay attention to who is in your circle. Are they motivating you to make you better? Do they bring you joy or pain? If they bring you more pain than joy, distance yourself immediately! Life is too short to deal with too much pain.

Lesson Two - Work hard at Everything You Do: Try your very best when achieving your goals no matter if they are big or small. Don't be afraid to fail. There is an old saying, “Great things never come from comfort zones". This is a very true statement, in order to win in life you have to step out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself. Always know that you are more than enough. People will try to make you feel that you are not, but trust me, you are more than enough because God made you perfect.

Lesson Three - Never Give Up: Never give up on your hopes and dreams no matter how hard it gets. There is another old saying that goes “I can, I must, I will" and if you can believe it, you can achieve it". Understand that if you have the vision in your mind that means you can bring your vision to life. My sweet daughters, we have talked about your future goals so many times, and trust me, all you have to do is believe, work hard, and you shall achieve. Just never give up and if one door closes always remember that there will be another door, and if that door closes you have my permission to kick it down or create your own door!

The goal of this blog post is for my daughters to take these lessons and keep them close to their hearts. But in addition to that, this blog is to inspire other mothers and daughters to do the same.