Along with art, I always had a strong desire to serve others. When I thought art school didn’t seem to be my destiny, I chose the human services path instead.

I had countless jobs, internships and volunteer positions throughout college and graduate school, and I really did love them all, but I always got restless, bored or otherwise dissatisfied about 6 months to a year in.

I had many people over the years make comments to me along the lines of ‘you don’t seem like the type that works for someone else.’

What that looked like in my head at the time was that I’d be starting my own nonprofit at some point.

After Peace Corps, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted. I had spent so many years looking for the ‘perfect’ job at the ‘perfect’ organization – one where I wouldn’t eventually grow dissatisfied. But that was never going to happen.

I needed to create my perfect job myself. So I did. You can too, trust me.

Emily is an Artist, entrepreneur, and ambitious introvert who had to rethink her career plans when she married a military man. She wrote Permission Granted to lift other purpose-driven women up on the journey to creating their ideal lives.