It was a winter day in Tokyo, November 2015, when I found out I was pregnant, just a couple of months before my Master’s thesis defense day.

Two weeks later, everything shattered the moment the doctor told me I had a miscarriage, leaving me standing at a crossroads: continue toward a PhD, or step away.

I chose to stop, worried that if I kept sacrificing my health for my career, I might never become a mother.

Still, for the longest three years, no matter how hard we tried, I didn’t have any luck seeing that second line on the test strip.

The day I finally held the news of my first daughter, Hana, in my belly, I knew instantly: I wanted to live this motherhood fully.

Two years later, I was a first-time mom with a toddler, and a “stable” corporate job,

On paper, my life looked fine. But deep down, I felt exhausted.

Torn between office deadlines, late meetings, weekend fatigue, and the ache of not having enough time to bond with my little one. I felt imprisoned within the four walls of an office.

Then came 2020. COVID and lockdown. Motherhood hit me with a calling I couldn’t ignore: I can’t keep living like this.

So I decided to walk away from my corporate job and build my first Virtual Assistant business.

With no safety net. Just faith that even in the worst-case scenario, I would find a way.

That I could create both livelihood and breathing space, ambition and motherhood.

So I did. Steadily, imperfectly, and afraid.