Episode 4: Healthy Boundaries & Living Out of My own Expectations with Abby Bekele

I first met Abby the Spring of her freshman year at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.  She was one of my middle daughter Kylee’s original first friends in college, and they have remained close as roommates and friends over the last 5 years.  I have literally watched Abby grow up through this time, and am so thankful for the friend she has been to Kylee, and how she has been willing to come on board this podcast journey with me and do things that I would have had no idea how to do without her help and expertise.

Abby has always been a loyal, kind, honest friend, but where I am seeing her grow the most that gives me great joy is in her finding her voice to talk about the important social issues that black young women face every day in this country in their social, athletic, and works spaces, as well as finding her own voice in setting boundaries in relationships and learning how to not give everything without also receiving what she is worthy of in her relationships.  Abby is a big giver, so this has been a journey as she finds her voice and learns to live out of the expectations she has set for herself, not the ones that others around her have set for her.

We talk about navigating cultural expectations within her family as well as the expectations the world has put upon her, and not allowing those to override her why, her healthy boundaries, and expectations she has set for her life.

I have loved and continue to love watching her grow into this confident, spokesperson for her own life and the stories of others that she shares through her work, and her willingness to stay with it, knowing growth, learning, and change is a process, but that she is worth fighting for to be the best self she can possibly be for her and for the world.

I know you will feel inspired and encouraged as Abby shares all she’s learning and navigating in this episode.  I hope you’ll join us, and realize you are worth fighting for too.

Be sure to listen here on the website under Episodes or on our Anchor Page!