I met Lourdes Laguna on a club volleyball court in a New Jersey suburb outside New York.
The town was diverse for the time. We were two biracial girls working out what our identities meant and where we fit, belonging to multiple communities and living on the fringe at the same time.
We were friends off and on for years after that. We both went to school in the Boston area and overlapped at different times in DC.
Lourdes went into education and policy, nonprofits, and schools. I went into project management and social impact. In our own ways, we were committed to public service.
Then we both became coaches. It was a new role for us to harness our years of experience in a new way.
Lourdes got there first. She was already doing the work when I started asking her questions about it. I had 15 years of project management behind me and a PMP. Building a plan is the one thing I have never struggled with. What I was missing was somebody who had walked that path and would tell me the truth about it. Lourdes was that. She’s the reason I took the first step, and the second one.
How can we help other women of color?
As biracial women, we have spent our whole lives oscillating between our two cultures. Sometimes living in the space between them, which can be lonely.
We started talking about creating a community for women of color going through transitions. We’d been there, and it was tough at times. What if we could make it easier for others?
There are a lot of coaching programs for women, but there are few built for women of color, for their needs, circumstances, and challenges. One example is the ongoing news coverage on the sharp decline in workforce participation and spike in unemployment among women, particularly how Black women have been disproportionately impacted (see graph). Factors include mass federal downsizing, DEI rollback, healthcare infrastructure and social safety net shifts. The Transition Lab became our solution to supporting women of color going through a variety of transitions (e.g., relocation, career shift, unemployment).
The ending comes first
William Bridges wrote that every transition has three parts: an ending, a neutral zone, and a new beginning.
The neutral zone is the middle stretch, where the old thing is over. The new thing hasn’t started yet, and there’s a gap, possibly an urgency to sprint across before anyone notices you’re in it. It’s the in-between.
I’m currently in it as I job search and prepare for a move. I can see the ending on the horizon, while I navigate the in-between and have a hazy vision of the new beginning.
It’s uncomfortable and challenging, but it’s where the work happens. The ending is loss, and the new beginning is logistics. The middle is where you figure out who you are in a new city, as a mom or with a different job title. It’s also the part people try to do alone.
That’s what The Transition Lab is built on. Six Mondays inside the neutral zone, in a room of women who know what it is to be between things, and are ready to move forward.
Lourdes and I built the room we had needed and couldn’t find.
What do you need to move forward?
Maybe there’s a feeling of stuckness, or a call to make a change, but fear holds you back. So you stay, and indecision or more research doesn’t lead to action.
Write the shift you want to make and put it in the comments. No explanation required. What’s a small step that you can take in the next week to move toward it? A info interview, catching up with a mentor, journaling, etc.
If you’re looking for more support to move forward, The Transition Lab is waiting for you.
Meris
P.S. Join me and Lourdes for six Monday sessions, October 5 to November 16, for women of color 10+ years in transition. You leave with your Power Position and a plan. Details here: https://thetransitionalab.lovable.app/*