Hi, Friend!
I'm honored you're here. And even though it would be my absolute joy to welcome you into my physical home, my intention is to show you a full “non-physical” Persian welcome!
A Persian welcome aims to make you feel at home, entertain you, shower you with love, allow you to feel complete, to feel part of the family… and don't forget, lots of food!
I'm still figuring out how to offer you baklava through this screen.
Until I can host you in my signature “physical” Neda way, I'll start with this:
You're so beautiful - inside and out. I'm so - SO - glad you're here with me. And, I promise this is going to be yummy!
I clean up nicely, right? Well it hasn't always been sunshine, flowers and photoshoots… I'll tell you how I ended up here:
Growing up, I poured all my energy and passion into becoming who I thought I should be. I was goal driven and there was nothing I set my mind to that I didn't accomplish. I was an A student with extracurricular activities up the wazoo. I earned my doctorate. I became a wife to Cyrus, a mom to Ryan and Roxana. I became an entrepreneur.
I started and grew my own dental practice in my 20's. I went on to self-specialize in cosmetic dentistry and aesthetic medicine. And if one demanding high-powered career wasn't enough, I founded and grew an aesthetics practice while balancing family, motherhood, employees, expectations… LIFE. I was exhausted.
That should be enough to feel successful though, right? DECADES of one accomplishment after another?
Spoiler: it wasn't.
Please don't get me wrong, I have always been SO proud of myself and proud of my family for providing me the foundation and support to find every dream and desire within my reach.
But, every achievement was a high that only lasted for so long before I felt like I needed to do something even bigger to continue feeling worthy.
One day, it hit me: There wasn't going to be a magic accomplishment that would finally prove I was enough, was there? No external accolade that would finally allow me to feel that I had arrived.
No matter how much I was growing, it seemed like it wasn't about money or the laundry list of life and career milestones.
As I got more curious about how I was feeling, it became clear that I WAS actually really proud of my accomplishments, but perhaps I wasn't so proud of myself. How was that possible? Were we not one in the same? Perhaps, not.
Perhaps, I could not be defined by my accomplishments?
So…if I wasn't my achievements…then who was I?! How was I supposed to find fulfillment? Happiness?
→ What's a chronic Achievaholic with an identity crisis to do? ←
Faced with the predicament of a lifetime, I decided to figure it out. Because that's just what I've always done.
Let me tell you, the things I discovered about myself, about our world as we know it… there is no way I could stay silent about it.
And that's why I am here, with you now.
And it's just the beginning.
