I stumbled across a
women’s career group
on LinkedIn and noticed
a thread around a woman
saying she hoped to transition
from teaching to a
career in the medical field.
“Follow your dream!”
said one woman.
“Go for it!” said another.
“You found your passion – now go for it!”
What I heard in my head was
“You go, girl!”
The well intended, but not very useful,
battle cry of women supporting women.
A decade or so ago,
I ran into my recently x-ed husband
and his even more recently acquired girlfriend.
I spit out something snarky
and turned on my heels
with two girlfriends in tow.
They high-fived me and
you go girled me all the way home.
Later that night,
I called one of my guy friends
who listened to my story
and bluntly offered this:
“You acted like a dick.
Call him and apologize.
Then apologize to the girlfriend.”
Harsh, but helpful.
I reached out to the young woman
and offered to help rewrite her resume
and LinkedIn profile (no charge) and
talk her through the challenges of
career transition.
Not because I’m so great,
but because I know that sometimes
“You go, girl!”
only goes so far.
