In Episode 9, “Who Earns the Cape?”, I explore what happens when recovery stops being about getting back to who you were. After motherhood, illness, and stroke changed the way I saw myself, I started to wonder if I even wanted the old version of me back—or if I finally had permission to decide who I wanted to become.

After every medical emergency, my body changes.

The appointments eventually stop. The procedures end. Life moves forward.

But shame doesn’t.

In this episode of This Might Be Personal, I share the moment I stopped recognizing the person staring back at me in the mirror and the quiet battle that followed. It’s a conversation about body image after illness, the guilt of expensive medical care, the impossible standards we hold ourselves to, and learning that the person I was searching for in the mirror was never me—it was Wonder Woman.

What if the greatest battle isn’t surviving the emergency?

What if it’s learning to stop treating your own body like the enemy after it’s already fought so hard to keep you alive?

This is an episode about recovery, identity, grace, and discovering that sometimes the only thing left causing damage… is friendly fire.

I tell my kids to be brave. To do hard things. To never let fear make their decisions.

But what happens when I’m the one who’s afraid?

In Episode 7: When the Cape Falls Off, I talk about the side of recovery that doesn’t always look like progress—the overwhelm, the guilt, the moments my kids see the cape hit the floor, and the grace they give me when it does.

From parenting and homeschooling to navigating the invisible icebergs in my own brain, this episode is about learning that thriving doesn’t require everything to be perfect.

Sometimes courage is being afraid, getting in the car, and going anyway.

I thought I had finally found the answer—and that closing the hole in my heart would let me put the fear behind me. But lying awake on the operating table, everything changed. In Episode 6 of This Might Be Personal, I share the failed first attempt to close my PFO, what it felt like to be the less than 1%, and the moment it felt like someone took the guidewire and shredded my cape.

Sometimes falling out of the sky isn’t the end of the flight. Sometimes you’re just learning another way to fly.

After rebuilding my strength and finding my way back to kettlebells, I thought I was finally weightless again. But a year after feeling stronger than ever, I experienced a stroke that changed everything. Months of testing, uncertainty, and fear eventually led to finding a PFO — a hole in my heart that could be fixed. Episode 5 follows the moment I thought I had finally found the answer, the solution, and the path back to myself.

With my world-class coach, Shannon, who sees me clearly, momentum becomes the thing that carries me - physically and emotionally. This episode is about discovering that flight isn’t about force. It’s timing.

This episode of This Might Be Personal focuses on identity and coming to grips with what earning your place and owning your place once it’s earned means.

I didn’t want to beat the hare… I just didn’t want to feel left behind by it.

A reflection on pressure, identity, and the quiet grief of not moving as fast as you think you should.

Sometimes people come into our life at the perfect time to give us a message we really need to hear. After suffering from a stroke at 37, I was lucky enough to meet someone who changed my perspective.