Putting My Own Oxygen Mask On First

This summer, we took some real trips, went sightseeing, walked more than usual, got out on our bikes, and yes, ate way too much ice cream. Nothing dramatic. Just time together that didn't have anything else attached to it, including a trip abroad through France and Italy that gave us more than one perfect, unhurried afternoon. I have a few pictures from Pompeii of all places that I can't stop looking at.

That is why I went quiet for a couple of months. Not because anything was wrong. Because I needed to actually live the thing I wrote about instead of just writing about it.

If you have read the book, you know the phrase. Put your own oxygen mask on first. It is easy to say and it is brutally hard to live, especially if you have spent years making sure everyone else could breathe before you ever checked on yourself. This summer, and honestly this whole past year, I have been working on that. Reprioritizing what matters. Myself, my family, in that order sometimes, which does not come naturally to me.

Just this past weekend, my youngest and I found a state park near us that we had never actually been to. We spent the day at the beach and went kayaking for the first time together. It was such a small thing, and it mattered more than almost anything else I did all summer.

School is back in session, life has picked its pace back up, and it is genuinely busy right now. But I feel like a different person walking into it. Calmer. More centered. I started a demanding new role this fall, joining Lumanity as SVP of Market Access Client Engagement, right in the middle of a lot happening all at once, and I am handling it with a level of grace I would not have had access to a year ago. That is the whole point of the reset. Not to avoid the busy season, but to be able to enter it differently.

Here is what else was happening while I was quiet.

My website got a fresh new look and feel, still at jenngarofolo.com, and I would love for you to go take a look around. And at Lumanity, what has stayed with me most isn't the title, it's that they welcomed me by naming who I am, mental health and LGBTQIA+ advocate, author, alongside the professional resume. They made space for the whole of me from day one.

I sat down for two podcast conversations this summer, both dropping this month, both digging into parts of this journey I have not talked about publicly yet. And I am starting to step into speaking engagements, including a talk this November on resiliency that feels like exactly the right next chapter.

None of this happened because I suddenly had more time. It happened because I made the time, on purpose, for the things that actually needed me first.

Thank you for being here through the quiet. I am rested, I am centered, and I am glad to be back.

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