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Toolkit for Women’s Success #2: Finding Your Passion (aka Getting Your Groove Back)

At the risk of massive humiliation, I have written a song. At no point in my life have I ever done this. But, as I mentioned in my first post in this series, I am on a quest to get arts back into my life. Some might view this as an act of clinical insanity. It was inspired by a few opening lines I scribbled for – what I wish and hope someday – will be a finished book. But I digress, here goes, my first song (lyrics), dedicated to all women trying to get their groove back, and to all of us hoping the girls and women in our lives find their way.

The Hot Mommas Project Song:

Our Yes Girl

Lyrics by Kathy Korman Frey,

To the tune of “Breathe” by Anna Nalick (click here for this song)

[Side note: My dream if this were legal and all Is dotted and Ts crossed, the song would be sung by up and coming Girl Band “The Bonde,” and mentored by Anna Nalick]

Verse 1

9 am and she went to the meeting bright eyed

She said “yes” and her soul felt so truly alive

She just witnessed a piece of her future unfolding

Back at home she’s subsumed by the weight of her world

Schoolwork, housework, plug in the right term for our girl

What had happened to “yes” and to all of that freedom?

Chorus

She was both proud and scared of the life she’d been living

Untrue to herself, but eternally giving

The answer played hide and go seek with her mind

She cradled her head in her hands*

And breathed, just breathed*

Oh breathed, just breathed*

Verse 2

Something will change in me or my world or the two

Was her rally cry from a girl that she once knew

If this was a fight, she was hopeful she’d win it

From the dark came a good hand outstretched to our girl

She said “yes” and grabbed on and stepped into that world

Full of people who said that they wanted to help her

Chorus

She was both proud and scared of the life she’d been living

Untrue to herself, but eternally giving

The answer played hide and go seek with her mind

She cradled her head in her hands*

And breathe, just breathe*

Oh breathe, just breathe*

Chorus – altered

‘Cause our girl, she is us, and we know what we need

Deep down inside when we clear out the weeds

It’s time for the leaders we know we can be

Take your hand from your head and reach out

Verse 4

9 am the next day she walks in, her head high

She’s an agent of change in her very own life

With a chorus of wisdom and knowing behind her

From the dark comes a hand that needs holding by her

It’s another girl, lost in this big scary world

What do you think our brave girl gave as her answer?

Chorus

“Yes” she said “Yes,” “We can do this” she’s roaring

Her mind was alive, and her spirit was soaring

The tables had turned and she’d already won

The fight is not being alone

And breathe, just breathe*

Oh breathe, just breathe…*

*Lyrics from Anna Nalick’s Breathe (2am)

Please let me know what you think of my first song ever (even if it stinks!). I always joke with my students about holding hands and singing Kumbaya. This is scarily close. And, think about this! I said I was getting the arts back in my life, and, hey – I’m doing it. Even if I am a hard core junior varsity poet. And, now, my daughter and I are going to a Hip Hop Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage!

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About the Hot Mommas Project

Proud of the women in your life? So are we. The Hot Mommas Project is the world’s largest women’s case study library. Said in “normal people” terms: This is the award-winning research of faculty member Kathy Korman Frey of the George Washington University School of Business, CFEE.  The project makes women’s stories teachable using our “case wizard” at www.HotMommasProject.org . The Hot Mommas Project library is the first of its kind, providing scalable, global access to role models and virtual mentors that can be used by educators, trainers, and parents. We’ve been featured in Prentice Hall textbooks, the Washington Post Magazine, NPR and are the winner of a national Coleman Foundation case award.

How to get involved:

1. Join the sisterhood. Did you know access to mentors and role models increases real and perceived success? Email us for your Mission Instructions for the New Sisterhood of Success. You’ll impact a life in five minutes.  Click here.

2. Nominate a woman in your life, yourself included. Our call for 2011 nominations has begun for dynamic women 18 and older. While the contest runs through January 31, 2011 – Start now! There will be prizes this spring and fall for early bird publishers. Nominate here. See last year’s winners here.

3. Share your story. Winners are published in a major Prentice Hall textbook and your lessons are shared with women, girls, and educators across the globe. It’s one of the most scalable, time-efficient way to make an impact. No, you do not need to be a mom. Nominate yourself here.

How sharing your story works: Nominated women come online, write their story using our “case wizard,” and click “publish” to be permanently archived in our case library.  Winners will be published in a leading Prentice Hall textbook in addition to other honors and prizes.

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To inquire about sponsorship, email us. We have offer visibility via social media, large university events, and category sponsorship of our permanent, free, online case library. Sponsors range from the Charles Schwab foundation, to philanthropists, to professional women pooling resources to sponsor an award.

Our 2010 press release.

2 thoughts on “Toolkit for Women’s Success #2: Finding Your Passion (aka Getting Your Groove Back)”

  1. Every day I miss the times I would be singing around the house, being involved with crafts or anything to do with hand work. Even when, used to participate in a dance group, which I loved and danced for 4 years. Dance is still something I miss a lot in my life because I was able to interact with people without saying a word. Hopefully I will go back to the group again one day.
    When I look back to the time I was a teenager what I miss the most is to be able to create a lot more than I do now. I mean, I had more time to spend doing a lot of more to myself than I do now, with the responsibilities of work and adult life.
    I’m from a city where art is something people have in the blood. We were colonized by the Jesuits and many people who would make their living with art (music, crafts and paints, weaving and so on). Since I was a little I used to watch my mom and grandma do crochet, but they never had the patience to teach me, so I had to watch it close to learn. And it went by with painting and especially the passion I have to sewing clothes.
    Here indeed, you showed we can still find time to be creative and maybe dedicate a little bit of ourselves for something, as you are doing, by going to see a concert with your daughter and writing this song that turned up good and very creative.

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