Hello!
Welcome to our blog “Growing Against the Grain.” I’m saying “our”, because this is a joint blog where you will read about me, Paige, and my sister, Tiffany. We will be documenting the positives, and negatives, of being a female in a world that feels like it is catering to males. Presently, there have been many changes in the world as the years have progressed. Women and men’s roles have been constantly evolving. Sharing our experiences with you is our way of helping with educating others. Follow along our journey of becoming strong independent women. So you don’t have to make the mistakes we did.
Who are we?
I (Paige) am a blue-collar worker in a male-dominated field, a welder in the shipyard. Additionally, I am 29 years old and married with 3 adorable cats. Faison, Stella, and Samantha are me and my husband’s babies. We can constantly be found talking about them as if they were actually our kids. When not hanging with the cats, you can most of the time find me on my computer. Where I’ll be playing video games or board games with my husband and friends.
Hey everyone! This is Tiffany, and I am going to interrupt my little sister real quick to introduce myself. (In true older sister fashion). In rural NC you can find me working as a Director of Finance at a nonprofit health center. Where I also have my Masters’ in Business and I am currently pursuing my Doctorate in Business. Subsequently, doing research on Family Business and Corporate Social Responsibility. Furthermore I’ve worked in accounting/finance since graduating with my Bachelors. Surprisingly I am NOT married, at 39 years old. Apparently this is a HUGE faux pas. Instead I have Lucy, my cat. Similarly to my sister, my cat, is my only child and my life revolves around her. I’ll let Paige get back to it.
Why we are here
Obviously me and Tiffany have huge differences between us. Our age, style choices, music we listen to, hobbies we enjoy and food we love amongst a few examples. Occasionally, we will joke when shopping for the other, that if one of us hates an item the other was sure to love it. Regardless, similarities can still be found between us. Especially because we grew up together, and our family helped shape who we are. With me being the youngest child and Tiffany the eldest, it was hard for us to find common ground apart from fighting. This was until we were not kids anymore, where we found out the other wasn’t so bad after all.
We now get to share the difficulties of growing into women in this world together, and sometimes thousands of miles apart, because Tiffany moved to South Korea for three years. Above all, there have been wonderful times being able to experience the joys of life with each other. In contrast there have been hard times where life really knocked us down a few pegs.
Subsequently this blog will document our struggles of growing into adult women. What we have learned about ourselves and life in general. We want to share our knowledge and experiences with other females through stories of our family, schooling, work, or maybe just a simple doctors visit. If there’s one thing I am sure of, it’s that a good portion of our stories will have a similar theme of us doing the exact opposite of what we are told to do. Going against the grain has become one of our top priorities in life. Ensuring we have proven to ourselves we are strong and brave enough to be able to accomplish any and everything we yearn for. Just like any independent women would.
Our hope with this blog is that we can assist other females in becoming strong independent women. We are going to share our stories of how we stood up for ourselves and fought to do what we knew all along we could do. Especially when others doubted us. So join us, and follow alongside us as we learn and grow together.