The Life and Times of Birungi Ives
Installment #1
Have you ever felt that you need a change, but you do not know where to begin?
At the age of 42, I have felt this way many times in my life. However, never as profoundly as when my son was 3 years old and I was 32.
From the outside, my life looked amazing. I was married to the love of my life. I was a stay at home mother with a cheeky 3-year-old son. We had a cute little bungalow in Huntington, New York. I was joining the Junior League. I had a close-knit group of friends. Our children went to a preschool together that we all loved. It seemed perfect!
Despite all of that, I had never felt so lost in my life. “My Life” is the key phrase. What happened to “My Life”? I remember, when I was in my late teens and early 20's. I had lofty goals. I had dreams. I wanted to run my own business. I wanted to be a powerhouse in the business world. I could see my future so clearly.
At 32, I was crying into the dishwater. I felt untethered and set adrift. I felt that my life and my non-existent career was way off track. I needed a change, but I had no idea where to begin.
I had exhibited my modern abstract artwork before moving to New York. I sold a few paintings. However, I would not have called it fruitful by any means. It was more like pocket change, $250 here and $750 there. It was exciting at first, but my family and I could not live off those proceeds. That reality left me feeling even worse, as if I was a non-contributor.
Attempting to find direction and a purpose outside of being a wife and mother, I started volunteering at the Family and Children’s center in East Hempstead. There, I taught an art workshop to middle school students that had lost their school art program due to budget cuts. I loved teaching the class. However, it was not enough. I knew I had to go back to work. I knew I had to financially contribute to my family. I knew I had to wake up with a purpose that extended beyond laundry and playdates.
So, where did I start? I started with what I was most passionate about. I started with writing. I wrote and I wrote. I wrote about things that were important to me at the time, healthy living, an eco-friendly lifestyle, and a purpose driven life. Out of this writing, GEOF |Global Echo Online Forum| was born. You can find it on the web today. Yes, the landing page is one of my paintings that was bought at a fundraising auction for my son’s preschool. I stopped publication in the summer of 2013. It had a 6-year run.
When I started GEOF, I was writing about topics, products, services, companies, and organizations that I was excited about. However, the initial subject matter was at arm’s length, because I did not know how to bridge the gap between my passions and reality. In simple terms, I wrote about an event, but did not attend it. I wrote about a car, but did not drive it. However, that changed one fateful evening. Actually, my whole perspective on life changed that evening. That evening, I bridged the gap between my passions and my reality. From that evening, my life would never be the same.
To be continued…
Preview from the next installment:
Standing in front of me were the Who’s Who of the political and philanthropic world…
He extended his arm to shake my hand and said, my name is Van, Van Jones. All I could think of in that moment was, “How did I get here?”.
Read the second installment by clicking here.
In future installments, you will find out how I managed to go from being a stay at home mother to running a company, where I have worked with industry influencers, such as Elon Musk and Cindy Crawford.
If you want to see what GEOF became, I welcome you to visit the website at geof.us . The site has not been updated since 2013. So, visiting the site is like visiting a museum and observing an ancient relic. Basically, the site looks very dated, but it works as a point of reference for how my journey began.
If you want to see what I am up to now, I welcome you to visit the website for my company ALIGNE at a-ligne.com . Learn more about my work by reading the feature that my alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, wrote about me, by clicking here.
If you want to change the trajectory of your life and learn the skills that got me to where I am today, I welcome you to visit my ALIGNE Academy at aligne-academy.thinkific.com .
