Meet Jessica Howe from Virginia

(Howe cool is that last name!? She’s pretty proud of that!) Her parents were born and raised in western New York. Her father built a career working for a tech company that managed technology connection services. When she was young, he was contracted to work at the Pentagon and moved his family south. Growing up outside of our nation’s capital offered her a wealth of educational opportunities. When Jessica was 10 years old, unfortunately, her parents divorced. She is the youngest of her four siblings and by that time, all of her older siblings had moved out of the house. She was the last one left living with her mother. Jessica and her mother have a wonderful relationship but her mother is a bit laid back and never encouraged her to set any solid life goals. She was allowed a great deal of freedom to do as she wished. After high school, she decided not to go to college. Instead, she put herself through a technology certification program. She spent her teens and early twenties searching for her purpose. She had always dreamed of living in New York City and eventually landed a job at a large firm in Manhattan. She moved to Manhattan and said she loved every second of her life in the city. But, seven years into that dream, she realized that what you want isn’t always what you need. Even though she was living in one of the world’s largest cities, surrounded by millions of people, she found herself feeling incredibly alone. Her firm offered her the opportunity to transfer to Florida and her life in NYC was left in the dust. She packed her bags and moved to Florida. Finally, her life had begun to take shape and she began to find a direction and purpose. She met her husband and they had a son. They love to travel and just returned from Alaska, where she realized a lifelong dream of seeing humpback whales. If there was one thing she could change about her life, she said she would’ve asked her mom to be a little harder on her. She wishes her mother would have held her more accountable. She said, “My mom is a pretty easy-going person so I had a pretty easy childhood, but I wish she had been just a little bit harder on me. My dad is the stern one and for good reason. As parents, we are preparing our children to take on the world, and the world is an unforgiving place and is not always easy on us. It is our job to prepare our children for as much as we possibly can before we set them free into it. The one thing she wants to tell the world is, “Don’t waste your time mindlessly scrolling on social media or the Internet. Go outside. Get your boots dirty. Explore as much of the world while you can. Our time here is limited. Life is an adventure. Go live it!” Thank you so much for visiting.