10
In 10 years, I’ll be 53. And 10 years ago, I made some decisions that have defined my present.
I followed the IG trend of posting what I was doing in 2016. I thumbed through all the photos from that year and remembered a lot of what I saw like it was yesterday. But it was also amazing to see how far I’ve come since.
Image: Me with Nico’s 8th birthday cake this weekend.
To know that my desires—to spend more time with my family, to work for myself, to tease out what it means to be a neighbor and contribute to the community I live in—would come to pass in the ways that they have is surreal. A couple of decisions between 2012 and 2016 allowed these desires to become reality. During a conversation this weekend with one of my best friends from college, she said that I’d made some good, defining decisions since we graduated—us buying our apartment was one, and starting Sugar Hill Creamery was the other. But neither was easy.
When I think about my state of mind 10 years ago, I was torn. I was trying to root myself better in my practice as a mother, but I was also building my career as a passionate museum professional. I was commuting an hour and 15 minutes each way, and I was pregnant with Zadie for a little less than half of that year. I would spend my 10-to-15-minute walk to and from the train on the phone with my mom and friends, talking about the projects I wanted to bring to life and complaining about the not-so-fun parts of my job. But I also wanted to do good work at work and make an impact in the ways I could.
Image: Me and Baby Zadie on a 48-trip to London to represent the Museum that I was working for at the time at a Google Arts & Culture Collections exhibition
All of this 2016 nostalgia got me thinking about the decisions I’m making today that will shape my life in 2036. So now I find myself asking: what seeds am I planting today?
Despite the economy and the state of the world, my 2016 desires came to pass. Every attempt at making my dreams a reality involved a few steps forward and a few steps back, but those few steps back were still a little closer to the outcome because of incremental progress towards the larger goal.
Today, I’m making decisions for our company (e.g., are we going to build an ice cream plant?!), our home (e.g., are we going to try to move to a larger unit or renovate the one we have?), and our children that will absolutely impact me at 53, provided nothing terrible happens between now and then.
Image: Zadie sitting for this year’s school picture
I’ve always set decently-sized goals for myself, but I’ve never expected them to happen overnight. Ten years is a great incubation period for taking the small steps we need to realize them. And just like I shared with my friend who came with me to see Ila compete today in the Colgate Women’s Games, for me, it’s not about winning the race today; it’s about the progress made since the last race towards the larger goal. Ila has set a personal record for the 1500m each time she has run it over the last month, and that’s the kind of progress I live by—steady and incremental. In 10 years, maybe I’ll be sitting in a stand watching her compete at a much larger race, and maybe our ice cream company will be the vendor at the stadium. We’re both just focused on beating our previous time. Little by little, we’ll get there.
Petrushka
Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach
P.S. We have two fun events coming up this February—Ice Cream for Breakfast on Feb 7th at the Lenox Ave Store & in StuyTown, and our 2nd Annual Galentine’s Day Stuff Your Stanley on Feb 13th. You can also get a BOGO of one of last season’s flavors when you make any single scoop purchase this month at any of the stores.