When You Have It All But Still Feel Empty
I am honored to introduce you to a woman who has inspiration flowing through her bloodstream and a heart of gold. Keep on being a bad ass, Joanne <3 thank you for sharing your story with us. X - Chels
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When Chelsea asked for me to share my journey I couldn’t have been more delighted to be featured and shared on the Millennial Miss blog. I had the pleasure of meeting Chelsea in LA for a bloggers workshop and seeing her blog and online presence grow throughout the past year has been incredible.
My twenties was a decade full of revelations both personally and professionally and the one that really resonates with me the most is when I turned 25 and realized my life looked completely different from my other 25 year old friends. At the age of 25 I had already been a mom for 4 years, married for a handful of months, and going on 6 years in a career that I’ve been wanting sine I was 14. At the time I was one of the top rated hairstylists in the Silicon Valley area and was known as “I CUT HAIR”, which was my username on Myspace, but also the social media avenue I used to build a majority of my business and grow my clientele. On top of working at one of the most trendiest salons in San Jose, CA I was an educator for a hair care line called Rusk and traveled all over the US teaching at salons and on stage at large hair shows to hundreds of young and seasoned stylists who graced those classrooms daily. From the outside looking in, I had it all set: a husband, a family, and a career that I was passionate about. But deep inside I still felt like I was missing something, I remember blogging about it in the first blog I ever started.
Reading that old blog post not that I’m 32 I can freely say that what I thought I was missing out on was my early adulthood life. Don’t get me wrong I don’t regret any of the choices or life changes that were made in the past but I missed out on my youth. Instead of nights with girlfriends I spent late nights changing diapers or losing sleep over trying to be a good parent while I was still learning what it meant to be a grown up. I missed out on the traveling most adults do in they’re early 20s or the the getting to know your husband time and all the storms that you navigate together as a young married couple. Those adventures for my husband and I included a sidekick, Airis, our eldest daughter. They were amazing family adventures, but it wasn’t the young married couple adventures that you see where two lovebirds are backpacking through Europe together for 2-3 weeks. My life needless to say didn’t pan out the way I had imagined it when I was 17 years old. My plans changed and evolved when I became a mother at 21.
Regardless of how my life turned out, I learned some of the best and greatest lessons of all time being a mother at that young of an age. Becoming a parent brought me an incredible amount of focus to my life. I had to learn what it took to be responsible for someone else and how to make decisions that were greater than myself and greater than the #YOLO and now moment, things that are often hard to take into perspective when you’re busy living in the moment. Being derailed from the vision you once had placed on yourself doesn’t mean its the end of the world or that you have have to completely change who you are as a person. The best thing about living a life you create is that you have plenty of opportunities to reinvent yourself at every stage.
Most people see me as a woman who has her world all figured out: I have a career, a husband, a photography business I co-own with the husband, children, and a personal blogging passion I fuel. On top of all that I managed to find the time and energy to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. But I have a secret, I’m just winging it, my eyeliner, my life, my everything. I’ve come to understand the top priorities in my life that help to keep me grounded and centered are: health, family, and my continuous growth both career and personal. If I can fuel these three areas passionately then I know I’ve found my authentic living.
Joanne Encarnacion, Fitness & Style Blogger at GOFITJO.
Hello! I’m a modern day millennial mother living a life she created. My fitness journey wasn’t just a road to get into shape physically, but mentally too. I’m a woman who knows that the key to success doesn’t come without a little struggle. I’m fueled by the desire to encourage others and am extremely passionate about sharing my journey in hopes to inspire others to find their inner strength and self worth. My belief is that there’s more to fitness than the perfect body, its about health, its about getting your life together, its about overcoming your fears, doubts, and insecurities. instagram | twitter | facebook
Photo credit: www.encarnacionphotography.com
