What perimenopause has to do with my new Pottery Barn desk

An essay about learning to value yourself

For much of the time that I’ve been building Hotflash inc I’ve been doing it from an assortment of cafes, carting notebooks and laptops and ring lights around, spending a small fortune on Americanos and bottles of water and energy balls, making friends with the staff and sometimes feeling embarrassed about just how long I’d been there.

I’ve never really understood this urge of mine: to be out, when I could just be at home. I thought maybe it was because I live alone, and I wanted to be with people. And there is something to that, for sure. That’s why I like going to the weightlifting classes at F45, just to get a little hit of humans. (Also, osteoporosis.)

But I think it also is about a lot more than that. I have this sense that I’m finally getting my act together, after a very long time wandering in a wilderness of overwhelm.