Bureaucrat to Baby Steps

Category: Life Transitions

  • Closing the DC Chapter: A Cross-Country Move, A Road Trip to San Antonio, and Letting Go

    Closing the DC Chapter: A Cross-Country Move, A Road Trip to San Antonio, and Letting Go

    After 18 years in Washington, DC, I packed up my life, said goodbye to friends and my USAID community, revisited my late father’s belongings, and embarked on a cross-country road trip to San Antonio with a baby and two dogs.

  • Watching My Mother Fade Through FaceTime: A Tribute to a Woman Ahead of Her Time

    Watching My Mother Fade Through FaceTime: A Tribute to a Woman Ahead of Her Time

    As this post is published, my mother, Tahera Rashid, is being laid to rest in Bangladesh. A woman ahead of her time, she built a life across journalism, banking, education, and family legacy while raising generations shaped by strong women. This is a reflection on grief, caregiving from afar, motherhood, and enduring love.

  • When Stability Turns Out to Be Conditional

    When Stability Turns Out to Be Conditional

    There’s a particular kind of disillusionment that comes from realizing that the “safe” choices weren’t actually safe. Public sector careers are often framed as the steady alternative. Lower risk. Predictable. Secure. But that stability is conditional. It depends on political priorities, budget cycles, and decisions made far above your pay grade. And when those shift,…

  • The Return-to-Work Cliff: Why So Many Mothers Don’t Come Back the Same

    The Return-to-Work Cliff: Why So Many Mothers Don’t Come Back the Same

    Part of the series Work, Care, and the Missing Middle There is a moment that does not get talked about enough. It is not the moment a child is born. It is not even the moment a parent decides to return to work. It is the moment you actually try to go back. The other…

  • Part 4: Beyond Survival: How a Mother’s Group Changed My Postpartum

    Part 4: Beyond Survival: How a Mother’s Group Changed My Postpartum

    Before I became a mother, I thought I understood the value of mother’s groups. During my time working as a Food for Peace officer, I managed programs in developing countries where mother’s groups were an important part of the program design. They were spaces where women came together to learn about nutrition for themselves and…

  • Finding My Way Back to Joy: How My DC Community Carried Me Through a Year of Change

    Finding My Way Back to Joy: How My DC Community Carried Me Through a Year of Change

    This past year has been one of the hardest—and most beautiful—chapters of my life. It was a year filled with seismic shifts: the dismantling of USAID as I knew it, the uncertainty of unemployment, a pregnancy that tested every part of me, and the fear of stepping into motherhood without the stability I had once…