The Book That Spoke to Me in a Time of Despair
Indra Nooyi’s My Life in Full
For the later part of my marriage, I struggled with trying to make sense of my role as a working woman and primary caregiver to my children whilst supporting my husband in his pursuit to climb the top of the corporate ladder.
Why did he get a pass from parenting? Where was he when I needed him the most as a partner and a co-parent? Why did I feel like his employee, hired at no cost to manage the house and the children? I put my goals and ambitions on the back burner while being the trailing spouse and keeping the family together.
When I finally ended the marriage of two decades, I went on a path of self-healing and immersed myself in reading. I found Michelle Obama’s Becoming helpful in how she supported her husband through his presidency and worked on keeping the bonds of their marriage intact. Unexpectedly, Will Smith’s biography also helped me see how a man and his success — most importantly his inflated ego — can cause rifts in the family.
The book that resonated the most was Indra Nooyi’s My Life in Full: Work, Family, and our Future. For those who don’t know her, she was the first immigrant woman CEO and Chairperson of a Fortune 500 company (i.e., PepsiCo). There were many similarities we shared and I’d like to highlight a few.
