All the Cool Kids are Doing It!

- except I’m not a cool kid

I’ve never been one of the cool kids. Growing up I was the girl with the books and the glasses. I tried some other things, but they just didn’t work out. When we first moved from the NY to Texas, I was in 6th grade and all the cool girls were getting ready to try out for the junior high cheerleading team. In Texas it is ALL about the football. Which wasn’t what I grew up with up north. Looking back, these girls had probably been going to peewee football games (or maybe even had already been peewee cheerleaders, how cute!) and taking cheerleading lessons since their parents could put them into a little cheerleader onesie. I had zero clues what this world was about, but I blundered right into learning all the cheers and trying out anyway. Needless to say I didn’t make the squad.

But that didn’t faze me. In junior high a bunch of the girls were going out for the basketball team. I said sure! Again, zero clues regarding how to play basketball. In the tryout the coach asked me to shoot a layup. A what-up? I watched another girl do it. And my feeble attempt was to just move to a position close to the hoop and standing there with both feet on the ground bankshot it off the board. <Cringe> I had no idea how lame I was. But that was fine. I was a straight A student and I did eventually go to State! In marching band. And typing.

All that to say, I’m not a cool kid. Never have been. And I’m not starting my Substack because all the cool kids are. (Although, if you’re a cool kid and want to be my friend, that would be such a relief!) I’m starting my Substack because I keep having important things I want to say. More and more the older I get. My ‘not cool but willing to work’ energy stayed with me through a crazy career, climbing the exec ladder at multiple companies, learning tons of lessons and tools. And I have so much I learned that I want to share.

For the last couple of years I’ve been trying to say them on LinkedIn. But everything I wrote was way too long for their 3,000 character limit. So I would use AI to help scrub it down. I felt like it lost some of the message, and I also lost my voice in the process. My most recent piece was better, but it started out at nearly 7,000 characters. That’s not a little bit of surgery. That’s an amputation.

So I’m coming here to Substack because I believe I have wisdom and substance to share. Actually, I don’t just ‘believe’ that. It is hardwired in my Human Design. I’m here to tell stories and share logical solutions with the collective. With my people.

So here I am.

Stay tuned for the “unfiltered original” versions of some of those LinkedIn posts, as well as some new ideas I’m working on.

Love and Light,

Pat ❤️ ✨

Crossroads Midwife | Former Technology Executive

Human Design Coach | Compassion Key Facilitator