As I in the last seat of the U-shaped table setup in a musty Florida Hampton Inn conference room, I pondered how I would answer the CEO’s question. “I want each of us to give two words that describe us.” It was my first executive strategy meeting, and I wasn’t entirely sure how I got there. There were 16 of us, three female, and the next youngest person had at least 10 years on me. I felt completely out of my depth, though I wasn’t really there to participate. Or was I? It wasn’t clear. Would he expect me to answer this question? I was pretty sure I was only there to take notes. Right?

How does a girl from a mostly single-parent household, who lived in more places than I could remember, at times on welfare (but almost always poor and hungry), who dropped out at ninth grade and only recently got my degree – albeit online – end up in this room? Is it luck? Or a fluke?

I was selling myself short. I’m a hell of a woman. I’m as smart as I am short, and painfully ambitious. I’m mostly not an awful person, and I give it my all. Life has handed me some really nasty cards. And I always bounce back. I’ve got it.

“Resilient.”

I don’t remember what my other word was. Probably a throw away. But this one stuck to me. I have fallen more times than I can count, but with a lot of God and a lot of stubbornness, I always bounce back.

I am a mother. I am a career woman. I have lost many battles, and I’ve won many more. I am not any one kind of woman; I am a lot of kinds of women in one. And I relate to almost no women at all. But I have something in common with every female I know. I am woman resilient.

This blog is about all the stuff I’ve learned (and laughed about). It’s for every woman who has ever had to bounce back. Join me, won’t you?