Bullish: On My Family

Today marks a day of change.

Even before I could drive, I walked the halls at Merrill Lynch as an intern for my dad. Merrill hired me officially as soon as I turned 18...and I joined on full time as soon as I finished college at 21 in 1999.

I've been part of the Tacoma office for a few days shy of 6000.

As our industry is highly regulated, I've rarely blogged on my profession with the exception of highlighting the firm's commitment to responsible citizenship: giving back to the community around us.

Though the past year has been, at times, enormously difficult for our firm, there is great hope and optimism ahead.

In short, I am immensely proud to have worked for Merrill Lynch.

I could not have asked for better directors (Michael Nielsen, Dennis Bloom and George Kane - to be specific) or greater opportunity to excel as a young woman in a male dominated industry. Having the chance to work alongside my father for the past 16 years has been an incredible blessing.

Though Jonathan and I have been preparing for this for the past year, it still seems a bit surreal to know that this chapter in my life is ending. There is another blog post to come...but here's the reader's digest version in the meantime.

A few months ago, two days after we decided that I was going to retire early, we found a abnormal growth on the back of Thomas's head. Needless to say, we began questioning what we were called to do -- were we hearing a different response to our prayers for guidance? Were we supposed to continue to be patient and wait? Was this something totally different?

It was during this time that we were affirmed in our decision to focus on our family. Over the next few appointments that he had, the growth seemed to be shrinking. I gave four weeks notice to our team, and prayed for Thomas's health (and peace for us in the meantime). And a few weeks later, the growth had disappeared.

Every choice that we make in the life is not only a choice to do something, but a choice to not do something. Growing up, my mom was able to stay home with us. Jonathan's dad was able to stay home with him. It's not something that works for everyone, but we hope to make it work for us.

And that leads me to today. For me, for us, for our family...this is right where we want to be.

We are blessed that I will have the chance to stay home with Thomas. To help focus in on him and our family.

And for the first time in my career, I am wondering what life will be like not lived on east coast time (when the market opens at 6:30 Pacific, 9:30 Eastern).

I am definitely looking forward to finding out.