Meet Kelli
It won't take you long to realize that Kelli Currie is an overachiever — it will become evident quickly when you try to pin her down on exactly what she does. Mom to two? Check. Wife? Check. Successful business owner? Check. Second-year law student? Check. Graduate school student? Check.
This mom is doing it all and with a positive attitude that pushes her further ahead with each step, despite a schedule that would likely make your Google calendar app cry. Kelli's lifestyle can easily be an inspiration to moms who are struggling with the "having it all" debate in their own lives, rather than making other moms feel inferior for making them feel as if they aren't doing enough. As Kelli humbly says, "What's important is that a woman feels fulfilled in whatever she's pursuing. Can we have it all? Can we choose to juggle all of these hats and still do it with grace and a modicum of sanity? Absolutely. But it's perfectly alright to simply pick one hat, or two or twenty."
A day in the life
It's a good thing Kelli looks good in hats, because she wears a lot of them throughout the day. With a day that often starts with a 5:30 a.m. workout, ends with a midnight study session for whatever law school or graduate school course is most pressing, and filled with the myriad obligations and activities in between — including playing mom — from the outside, Kelli somehow manages to make it look effortless. There's a lot of juggling, a lot of precise scheduling and a lot of necessary flexibility in Kelli's schedule, because as any mom knows, you never know who's going to wake up with the flu in the middle of the night, and while digging into a 100-page reading assignment can't wait, neither can a child who is throwing up.
"Instead of trying to do too many things, I do my best to simplify the hard days," Kelli tells us. "Part of being able to juggle so many things is being honest when you simply can't and asking for help. I call in reinforcements if I can and let people know when I need to reschedule things because of sick kids, insane homework or general disaster."
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On having it all... or not
But, what does Kelli think? Is she striving to have it all or simply attempting to pack everything she loves about life and wants to achieve into one single go around?
"In any given moment or hour or day or week, I absolutely do not 'have' it all. Some days I'm a student, other days I'm a mom or wife, a mentor, a teacher, a nurse, a daughter, a sister. I do not believe for a moment that I could wear every hat all of the time."
Even if you're a mom who feels like trying to balance making sure everyone in the house has clean underwear with trying to get dinner on the table before 10 p.m. feels like a stretch most days, there are lessons that all moms can take away from Kelli's story, including the realization that "having it all" is exactly what you want to make of it. Just because Kelli and her family have created their own balance in making their current lifestyle work for them, doesn't mean that your own version of "having it all" has to be identical.
Kelli, the overachiever herself, says it best, "I think the question is less about 'having' it all and more about appreciating that we have the ability to choose to enjoy many different endeavors that will often compete for our time."
Image credits: Andria Lindquist
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