From STEM to Seam

Throughout my adult life, from high school onward, I had a certain set of expectations. They are very different from my life now. I always tested well, and fell right into the STEM field in college.

Woah, woah, woah... academics on a sewing page... what's going on?!

Just bare with me... I will get to sewing.

Anyway, I fell right into the STEM field in college, taking Anatomy & Physiology, Cell Biology, the works! But at times in my college career, I wavered. My brain worked in science but my heart loved language and creativity. For a while, baking when I should be studying would satiate that crafty appetite. I would keep cruising along, then the dissatisfaction would all boil over and BAM! I would change my major to English and Spanish and forget all of this science stuff.

Then a little voice in my head would talk me down...

"You are wasting your scholarship."

"You can't afford a post-secondary degree."

"All you can do is teach with the Arts."

And I would hop back on the STEM train before falling behind in my credit hours.

Fast forward to 2018, and I was graduated from college, proud of a BS in Animal Science. I had many expectations to continue my education in the form of a Master's degree in Reproductive Physiology, or go on to Veterinary School, but I also wanted to get married, and so get married I did. We had a beautiful wedding in the Spring of 2019 and settled down in the greater Saint Louis area. I picked up a job in the veterinary field with my eyes on the big shining star of Veterinary School.

Come Spring 2020, we welcomed our first daughter, and I promptly quit my job to give my daughter the love and attention she deserves, and give her the life that I enjoyed with my mother staying at home.

This was quite an adjustment. I went straight from college, studying, academics, and then the veterinary medical field, to being at home all day with my precious love. Parenthood is hard, but it is not necessarily intellectually stimulating. I found myself being bored and stressed at the same time. All of a sudden I had created this beautiful miracle but at the same time failed all of my expectations that I had kept for years. Did I really want the career, the higher academics, the "MS" or "DVM" by my name? Was I putting it off indefinitely or was it just gone forever? Well, through some prayer and reflection, I discerned that it was the natural end of my hard work and life interests up until this point, but it wasn’t the only way to be fulfilled.

What’s more fulfilling than getting that high degree and building a career in the agricultural field? Having children that feel secure in their mama’s love for them. Having, God-willing, some farm animals to raise, teaching my children discipline and love for God’s creation. I hope that they will grow up learning trades and timeless crafts (like sewing), using the skills that God gave each of them.

When I think about the nitty gritty and the day-to-day sacrifices, mostly that of leaving my children, I just don't have the heart for a career, at least in this time. And sewing, getting in touch with hand-work and creating something, this helped bring me peace in my choice.

Sewing, especially heirloom sewing, has been a Godsend to my new stage in life and an answered prayer to the loneliness of motherhood. It was the piece of the puzzle that I never realized was missing. All of those times spent rifling through grandmother's heirlooms, being interested in family heritage, and staring at those oil paintings! It was only natural that my saving grace as I raise my own family is to delve into this sewing heritage!

I’m trying my best to bring Southern culture to Missouri, and as most Southern moms can relate, there is nothing like seeing your babies in a beautiful outfit with fabrics as delicate as angel wings, and my goodness that lace sure makes them look like an angel! Not only that, but as I mentioned before, it becomes a part of your heritage that your mama heart longs to pass on! I hope to provide that piece of heritage for any family with precious new babies and growing children, so that they too can make the sweet memories that I have already grown so fond of in my motherhood.