What She Didn't Expect Became the Chapter That Changed Everything

In this powerful episode, Meg opens up about the unexpected journey of early motherhood, from birth trauma and postpartum depression to raising a neurodivergent child. She shares how her own childhood shaped the way she parents today and the healing that’s come through therapy, honesty, and embracing the hard parts. This conversation is full of truth, hope, and Meg’s deep belief in turning pain into purpose.

If you’ve ever felt alone in motherhood, struggled with unmet expectations, or are walking through your own healing journey, this one’s for you.

Key Takeaways from Meg’s Story

• Meg opens up about her birth trauma and the lasting impact it had on her.
• She shares her struggle with postpartum depression and undiagnosed PTSD.
• We talk honestly about the emotional weight of parenting a neurodivergent child.
• Meg reflects on how unrealistic expectations around motherhood can lead to deep feelings of failure and isolation.
• She speaks to the power of therapy and inner child work in healing generational trauma.
• Meg learned to parent differently ditching old patterns and making room for empathy, understanding, and unconditional love.
• We explore how support systems (or the lack of them) can shape a mom’s entire experience.
• She shares how resentment built when she felt unheard and unsupported—and how she’s learning to repair that through communication and grace.
• From discovering how her daughter learns to understanding her own divine purpose, Meg’s story is about transformation.

Connect with Megan:  

Want to stay in touch with Meg or learn more about her work and her greeting card company? Check out all of her links and socials. 

Portia and Pete Greeting Card Company:   www.portiaandpete.etsy.com

Megan’s LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/meganmcglynn

Email:  megan.c.mcglynn@gmail.com

Transcript

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 0:00

Welcome back to Hidden Chapters. Today's episode is such a special one. I had the absolute gift of sitting down with my college friend, Meg. We recently reconnected after years of life happening, and I'm just so thankful she said yes to sharing her story here. Meg opens up with so much honesty and heart about birth trauma, postpartum depression, PTSD, parenting a neurodivergent child. her career pivots, and doing the deep, often unseen work of healing generational wounds. She talks about what it's taken to let go of the life she once pictured and find peace in the unexpected chapters instead. I'm so proud of Meg, and I know her story is going to land deeply with those who need it most. I always think it's so powerful to look back at the moments that shift our stories. So for you, that shift really began during your first birth story, right? So that experience that changed you. So let's go back and let's talk about that time, what you were hoping for, what you envisioned, and what maybe actually unfolded for

Megan McGlynn : 1:11

you. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you having me today. And I think it's my intention to help break down the expectations that we place around challenging subjects like birth trauma, postpartum depression, parenting, PTSD, and to really talk about these events and how we can bring a place of healing and purpose out of these. And for me, how all these events really provided me an opportunity to be of service to others. And so, yeah, I guess let's go to my birth story. I I knew I wanted to be a mom at the age of three. This was the year that I became a big sister to Caitlin and received my first baby doll, my baby Susie. I would sit next to my mom as she would nurse my sister and feed my baby with the little bottles of the disappearing milk. Do you remember those? Really?

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 2:07

Oh, and the cabbage patch dolls. I think I had the pound puppy. So I had I had babies.

Megan McGlynn : 2:11

Oh, there you

Speaker 02: 2:11

go.

Megan McGlynn : 2:12

Yeah, perfect. You know, and I started babysitting at the age of 12. Yeah. And spent every weekend taking care of the same family all the way through college when I would come back to visit. And I always felt this really deep connection with my feminine nature. And just felt like I was made for motherhood. Brian and I got married when I was about 25. And we knew we wanted to wait a couple years before having a family. So we waited about four and we actually got pregnant pretty quickly. And I just thought everything would go so smoothly. You know, I was told my whole life, you've got birth and hips that you're gonna sneeze that baby's gonna fall right out, you know. And I so wish that that was true. But pregnancy and parenting has taught me that expectations can be cruel at times. And they're unrealistic and attachment in general keeps us from being open to what and can be. And so I intuitively knew I was pregnant from a dream. And I woke up that morning, I took a test and it was negative. And Brian said, I know you're pregnant. I think you should go to the OB and get another test. So I went and the next day and it happened to turn out positive. And I was just, you know, sobbing with tears of joy. I was so excited for this next step and so ready for motherhood. And so based on my cycle, I should have been about six weeks pregnant. And so the next day we came back for an ultrasound. She said, we could probably see the baby's heartbeat. So we were really excited. And We did the abdominal ultrasound and she couldn't find a heartbeat. And she said, you know, I think you have an ectopic pregnancy. You need to go straight to the hospital. And I had a friend who had just the year before almost died from an ectopic pregnancy. It was very, very serious. So I was very scared. I cried the whole way to the hospital. And when we got there, we did an additional ultrasound and some blood tests and came back that I was pregnant, but I was like just pregnant, two weeks pregnant. So super fresh. And so we started settling into the idea of parenthood and getting really, really excited. And I began to construct a whole concept of how my pregnancy would go.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 4:29

Mm-hmm.

Megan McGlynn : 4:32

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And my pregnancy was really tough. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 17 weeks. I had to overhaul my diet and I tried the insulin shots. In San Francisco, the Bay Area, we'd moved back to the area. So I really didn't have like this great support system. I did have some great connections through some networking that I was doing as I was a small business owner. And they really did support me when I needed that. But I had an OB with the worst bedside manner. And I really couldn't imagine her delivering my babies and being a part of this whole experience for us. So I found a midwife who was willing to take me on as a patient with gestational diabetes and manage it with diet and exercise. And I had a real deep fear of hospitals based on the experience of watching my grandmother pass away in one. And so I really had this deep want to have a baby at home. And this midwife was, you know, specialized in, in home birthing. Um, our daughter who I'll call bear. I want to respect her privacy. So we'll use her nickname, but bear was breached until she was, I was like 36 weeks along. And so I actually had her flipped by a really well-known OB and that went remarkably well and easy. And she stayed in place. So we because there was a home birth, I allowed nature to take its course. So I went to 42 weeks and four days gestational gestation. Yeah. So I was two and a half weeks over what is typically considered safe for, um, you know, carrying your baby. And at the last measurement, she was measuring about 11 pounds. And my, my midwife would say, you can do this. You can totally do this. I'm like, yes, because I have birthing hips. I can totally do this. And, um, You know, I was a little nervous, but I really believed my body could do it. And I got things moving at home and I went into labor and I labored for two and a half days at home. I never progressed past four centimeters. So, yeah, I went to transition back twice. And that's when you have contractions like every two to one to two minutes and you're supposed to be pushing. And, you know, it's really hard. a godsend that I didn't push because of her positioning. And I was in labor for a really long time at home, two and a half days. And at some point I said, I can't do this anymore. I want to go to the hospital and I want to have a cesarean, which is a complete 180 from everything I had contrived in my mind. But I was exhausted. And it was my mom who told me, This is okay. Like this is now to a point where it might not be safe for you to stay at home. So we transferred the closest hospital, which turned out to be another poor decision and hindsight's always 20, 20, but it was a public hospital. And typically public hospitals serve a lot of people who don't have insurance. And so there's hospital policies in place that require a woman to check off all the boxes of why she can't have a vaginal birth before giving her a C-section. And I just remember saying, but I have insurance. I can pay for this. I need a cesarean. But I had to go through the protocol. And in hindsight, I can look back and say, I should put my clothes back on and walked out the door and gone to the private hospital around the corner, which ended up saving my life. But I didn't know back then. And I didn't know I had agency. I didn't know I could say, this is not the right choice for me. And so I stayed and I... I did another 18 hours of labor with an epidural and Pitocin. They wheeled me in and Brian's out scrubbing up and my epidural had actually come out a centimeter and they tried to put it back in. And of course I wasn't feeling the effects of it anymore.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 8:53

Right.

Megan McGlynn : 8:55

So they laid me down on the table and they swab your stomach with the disinfectant. I said, Oh, that's cold. I said, you can feel that. I said, don't cut me open. And that's a very triggering statement for me to say for myself. And they said, no, you know, we're going to set her up. So I sat up and they gave me a spinal block. So kind of a, kind of epidural.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 9:18

Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 9:20

And they gave me too much and too high in the spine. And so as they lead me back and created the first incision, Brian walked in the door, but I was gasping for air. I could not feel my lungs working. And I My throat muscles were sore for two weeks after delivery because I was just gasping for air. And I had this little anesthesiologist above me tapping my face saying, your oxygen's at 97. You're fine. You're fine. Just breathe. But she couldn't understand. I literally could not feel my lungs working. And you feel the doctors moving things around. And I just remember a doctor saying, I can't get my hand around her head. And then the other doctor saying, I can't, yeah, I can't get her out. And so the panic starts to set in. And eventually they are able to take Bear out and the room is quiet. There's not a cry. There's not a scream. And I remember just looking at Brian saying, she's not crying. She's not crying. And he said, you know, it's gonna be okay. It's okay. And they took her to the little table on the side. We had all these nurses huddling around her. And she came out with an Apgar score of two, and she had inhaled meconium. So she had to be aspirated. And finally, we heard that little cry. And, you know, you can't imagine a more amazing moment to hear this little human come alive. And I remember them wrapping her up and bringing her over and seeing her little eyes blink a couple times. And I kissed her mouth. And then it went black. I woke up three hours later in a recovery room by myself with a gorgeous, young, handsome doctor standing over me asking how I was doing. And the first words out of my mouth was, where's my baby? Yeah. I literally thought she had died. I was so... overcome by the trauma that I could not make any connections. And I, I had no real memory at that moment of her being alive. And so they ended up taking me into my, my postnatal recovery room and my whole family was waiting there and Brian was holding her. And it was, it was really tough. And I spent the next four days in that space, uh, with nurses coming in, forcing me to breastfeed and without asking permission, trying to teach me how to do that and putting me on a morphine drip, which I would fall in and out of consciousness. And, you know, my milk never came in. It was really, really difficult. I was going to ask you, going back

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 12:01

to where you were, the incision, you said you had felt that. What was triggering about don't cut me open?

Megan McGlynn : 12:07

Yeah, I mean, I felt them swab my stomach. And if you can feel that, you would certainly feel someone making an incision in your abdomen and then removing another human being from you. It was that idea of like, oh my God, they're going to cut me open and I can feel everything. I can look back now and say, I'm really proud of myself for saying something, but I felt completely out of control. So that's where the fear sets in is when you don't have any control. And that lack of control continued for the next, couple weeks because once we were sent home, I ended up with a massive infection in my cesarean. My incision came completely undone. I had infection running down my legs. It was very scary. I had a high fever. My baby had been screaming for days upon days because she was hungry. She was literally starving. My milk never came in. I was just continually encouraged to breastfeed. And so we ended up back in the hospital. And my mom snuck upstairs to the maternity ward and said, I need a bottle. This baby is starving. And so she sucked down that first bottle. I cleaned out my incision. They packed me up and they referred me to an OB and the wound care clinic and sent me on my way. And we took her for her first well baby checkup. And she certainly was not a well baby at the time. And when they took her temperature, she was 95 degrees, which is hypothermic. And she had lost more than 10% of her body weight. And she was a 10 pound, three ounce baby. She was huge. So we were sent to the hospital right away to help give her treatment that she needed. And while I was there, I was readmitted. Now we were sent to actually the private hospital because that's where our doctor had permission to work and which really was a godsend, you know, so I was readmitted there and they caught my infection before I went into septic shock. I'd been really sick with E. coli and group B strep. So yeah, our first month of life together was spent in hospitals. My mom moved in with us for five months to take care of both of us. She took me to a wound care clinic every week for the first five months. And as my cesarean healed, she fed us, she bathed me and my daughter. And I really truly believe that I'm here because of her. And she was able to see the struggle. She was able to allow space for me to have all the feelings that I needed to hear or to feel. And my husband is an amazing husband. I call him my number one feminist. He is really the backbone of our family. And when a couple goes through the same experience, they can be in the same room experiencing all the same things, but come out with a completely different perspective. Yes. And that was something that was really hard for me to understand and accept. And it's really taken lots of marriage therapy for us to come to that understanding of one another. So, but yeah, there's so much attachment that I had to this birth story that I contrived. And then when everything just went to pot, I felt like, I lost all control and lost all of the decisions. And I think control has been like a constant theme in my life. And when we feel like we're out of control, that's where the trauma sets in. That's where that connection happens.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 15:50

Well, I'm remembering what you were saying too. You went straight from what you had thought your birth was going to be like. And then after all of that, you ended up having to switch and having the cesarean. And then even after having her, she, you were forced to do certain things that you hadn't really wanted to do. So I can understand that.

Megan McGlynn : 16:08

Yeah. It was a lot of change. I mean, parenting in general is a huge change, right? Like I always come with a manual. They don't come with a manual. It's like, it's like, you know, taking a road trip without a map.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 16:22

Yep.

Megan McGlynn : 16:22

And this little person's dropped in your lap and you're trucking along the road and you don't know where the twists and turns are. And it's filled with roundabouts and U-turns and detours. And you don't know where the beautiful spots are along the way. You're just figuring it out as you go along. And I feel like once you figure that out, you can show yourself a little bit of grace.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 16:45

Yeah. Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 16:45

Well, in all of that, first of all, thank you. My goodness, I didn't even know. I know that we had talked after college, but I know that life just kind of took its way and we all just kind of did what we could do to survive, right? But that quiet unraveling that you were talking about, so you had that whole month back and forth into the hospital. What was that doing to you mentally? Gosh, I think I was just in survival mode.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 17:13

Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 17:14

You know, I was really expecting my first month of motherhood to be just filled with joy and peaceful and easy. And yeah, I just feel like I was in survival mode. And I think I've lived in survival mode for, gosh, 11 years before really getting serious therapy. That first year of parenthood was really lonely for me. People who I considered my best friends, they shockingly, they didn't reach out. My phone had never been so quiet. And it was really at a time where I needed people to reach out and say, how are you doing? And I could have said, I don't know. I don't know how I'm doing. My whole world had just been really turned upside down. And maybe they didn't know what to say. Completely understandable. But yeah, when I really needed friends during that first year, it was the people I'd met in birthing and in my birthing classes and some of those connections to the small business community who are also mothers. And they were just able to kind of hold that space for me.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 18:30

Yeah. When you were going through that survival mode, you mentioned postpartum depression hit it. and PTSD from the birthing experience. Going a little deeper, kind of start from there. When did you start realizing that you had that postpartum depression? Because I went through that too. I went through postpartum

Megan McGlynn : 18:52

very deeply. 10 to 20% of women actually do go through postpartum. And I think it's something that a lot of us don't talk about because of the shame associated with it, right? You know, when you're in the thick of it, I don't think you know you have it, right? Yeah. You don't, you don't know how to look for the signs, but I would say when the moms from my birthing class would reach out to me and they knew what had happened because all of our babies were kind of born around the same time. And so ours was probably in the middle towards the end of the group. Our daughter was born, but they would reach out and include me and get togethers. And I had a really hard time going. I would force myself to get dressed. I felt horrible, you know, I was still swollen, and I couldn't exercise, I certainly couldn't get my pre pregnancy pants on. So I would get dressed up, I would dress my baby up, and we would go and I would pretend everything was okay. And I would arrive and they would just be glowing and motherhood breastfeeding was going easy. Their babies were sleeping. My baby didn't sleep through the night for five and a half years.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 20:01

I'm with you, sister.

Megan McGlynn : 20:02

Yeah. And I just I felt like I There was no space held for an experience that was any different than the narrative that they were all experiencing. You just couldn't deviate from that. And when I did try to share my experience, I felt pity. And that could have just been my reaction to it, but I felt a lot of pity and received the generic, like, it's going to get better. She'll sleep through the night. Have you tried this? I'm like, look, I've tried everything. The

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 20:33

unsolicited advice.

Megan McGlynn : 20:35

The unsolicited advice, which really no mom wants. And a first-time

Speaker 02: 20:40

mom.

Megan McGlynn : 20:40

Oh, exactly. Exactly. And that's a time where like blogs are really big parenting blogs. Um, you know, we didn't have Instagram and Tik TOK at that time. Thank God, because I don't even know how I would have dealt with all of that, but we certainly had Facebook and we were posting pictures of, you know, of the baby. And, but I would read these blogs and I would just want to throw my laptop against the wall because I'm like, my, how nice for you. Right. Like I was drowning in resentment, uh, in jealousy and anger and all this unprocessed trauma. And I just couldn't connect. And I cried in the shower a lot because you just feel like you're failing and there's so much shame connected to all of that. But it's probably when my mom left to go back to the East coast after being with us for five months, I was home every day with bear and Brian would go back to work and She barely napped. I rarely had a break. We would go out on walks and I always joke, she's a Gemini. So it was like every other day was a good day. And if we were in the house longer than a day, she would kind of like lose it. So we would have to go out for a walk. But I also had to pull myself together to take her for a walk, right? It was a lot of work. And I never felt negative feelings towards her. I knew she had nothing to do with this. And I really would enjoy like our days and you know, pull from that little babysitter's like toolkit that I had for all those years to take care of her and love her and enjoy those moments. But you know, Brian would come home from a long day of work, and I would greet him at the door with the baby, I would hand the baby over. pour myself a huge glass of wine and say, unless the two of you are dying, do not unlock this door. And I would go into my bedroom and I would lock the door. And now I can look back and say, well, that was really an unhealthy choice, you know, because there certainly became a dependency on that behavior for many, many years. But he didn't know how much I was struggling, right? He just didn't know. So everything was just so new for him. But his experience with Bear's birth was just this amazing, joyful event. And he had help along the way, right? With the support from my mom being there. So again, his experience was a little bit different. And he didn't know until recently, about a year or so ago, being in marriage therapy, that I was fighting really intrusive thoughts about what would it be like to drive my car into a tree? What if I just drove off the highway into the Pacific Ocean? It would make things so much easier. It would make the flashbacks go away. I wouldn't feel guilt anymore. I wouldn't be suffering. And of course, then I would think about how my family would suffer if I wasn't here. And that's what would pull me back in. But I didn't want anybody to know how ashamed I felt of all of these feelings that I didn't feel grateful for this beautiful blessing before me, but I was just drowning. I was drowning. And it really wasn't until I made really good friends with another mom. We met on the playground and she was very open about being in therapy and having postpartum depression. And I felt safe enough to say, yo, this sucks. Motherhood is nothing like I expected it to be. And she had no idea that I was suffering because I was putting on this facade of, oh, I have it all together. And everything's hunky dory. And with her, I was able to really be raw. And- But it was still at that time that I didn't know I needed professional help. And it really wasn't until there was about three and we had moved back to the East Coast that my mom noticed that I needed some help. She could see the anger stirring and the lack of patience and... just the unhappiness that a mother is able to see in their, in their child. So she referred me to someone who does EFT tapping or emotional freedom technique. And it's where you, yeah, it's a really great technique. You, you tap on a series of acupressure points on your face and your chest and your arm, and you say statements about how you're feeling. And then you replace them with truthful and positive statements. And I, That helped for a while, but it didn't really help me process the trauma and to get tools with the way that I would react to situations and being short-tempered and dismissive and passive-aggressive. And that's all a reaction to unprocessed trauma. So I really began therapy, intense therapy after COVID when my daughter was about nine years old. My marriage was... That long. Yeah. I went a good nine, 10 years before I really, truly addressed the postpartum depression and the PTSD. And honestly, it was my marriage was suffering. I had an inability to really show and accept and express love and emotions constructively and in a healthy way. And you

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 26:24

buried it so deep.

Megan McGlynn : 26:25

I did. And I had so much resentment. Yes. Yes. So much resentment towards Brian. And that was just unspoken. Yeah. Absolutely.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 26:36

I can relate to you so much, but no, you're right. There was a lot of where you just get used to being in that mode and you can easily just shove it down. But that resentment for me too, I spent years. And that is part of the reason why I'm going through what I'm going through. I spent years. And one of the counselors said to me, she was like, this is like an iceberg and all anyone is ever seeing out of you your family, your kids, some of your friends, is that you're angry all the time for no reason. You're angry for no reason. I am angry. I am angry, but for a very good reason. But then underneath that iceberg, there's all of this hurt, resentment. There's just a lack of being acknowledged. All of these things were underneath. I got really good, same as you, I got really good at just burying it and dealing with it. But I was never angry. able to talk about it because talking about that with Chris at the times during deployments was not an optimal time or talking about it in the middle of a move or talk, you know, whatever the transition of life. So I did the same as you. And

Megan McGlynn : 27:43

those are, those are patterns that were taught, right? Like we learned that from our mothers and our grandmothers and our aunts and to be the strong woman to deal with it and to, yeah. And to not complain and

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 27:56

be grateful

Megan McGlynn : 27:57

to be grateful. Yeah. But, Everyone deserves healing and space to understand their patterns and to find tools to break these cycles and to find ways to react in a more constructive way.

Speaker 02: 28:17

Yeah. Yeah. So you said bear was nine and this is when you finally were able to just really recognize you realize you couldn't handle this anymore. Correct. What was that like to process that?

Megan McGlynn : 28:32

Yeah, it was tough. I mean, I remember sitting in a therapy appointment after having a just complete breakdown. And my therapist said, Megan, you have PTSD. And I was like, my dad has PTSD. I don't have PTSD. And she's like, all these things that you're experiencing is PTSD. And that's tough to hear. I think I'm just really grateful that our society is having a shift and understanding trauma, psychotherapy, that there's more of a conversation around psychotherapy and that people are open to getting help because that's the difference between our generation and these younger generations who are very open to therapy, which is wonderful. I mean, sometimes I think you can overdo therapy, right? But the generations before us, they didn't have those tools. They weren't No one went to a quote unquote shrink, right? Like it was looked down upon if you needed help. And I think there's now a conversation around the strength that it takes to say, I'm not doing okay. I need some help right now. And working with a professional who can hold that space for you to allow you to yell and express that anger and all that pent up frustration is that we carry with us and carry in our bodies. And allowing yourself to have that release creates a path for freedom.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 30:08

Absolutely. Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 30:10

And there's a lot of grace that comes along with that.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 30:12

It's only been the very recent couple of years that now more people are able to recognize, look, this is not okay. We're not doing well. That I even remember when Chris and I retired, I had a couple of friends come to me and go, is this normal? Because all the husbands were having the exact same reaction to just transitioning out of being military all of these years, going through the height of the war. They had experiences. They had things. But even then, we didn't talk about them. We didn't talk about them because they weren't the time to talk about them. And there's so many more resources now than there has ever been of all of these people finally getting the help because it doesn't label us anymore,

Megan McGlynn : 30:49

which I appreciate. Yeah, there's a stigma around it, like there was for our dads. Because, yeah, I mean, my dad did 26 years. Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember years, I mean, in the probably like early 2000s when our guys, you know, you and I both sent guys off to war in our early 20s. And we were sorority sisters at Elon. And, you know, when they came back, that's when PTSD was really starting to be discussed in the public forum. And I remember my dad saying like, oh, like, what are they talking about? Like, you're supposed to suck it up. You know, like, oh, I have PTSD. Old school army. But now the conversation is now much more open. Because they've seen the effects of what's happened. Absolutely. When we have soldiers dying.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 31:53

Committing suicide, having

Megan McGlynn : 31:56

all of these issues. Dying by suicide. I lost a friend last year. He served in the Army. And yeah, he died by suicide. And it was really sad to see someone who I thought was really happy. There was that facade. And we do that when we are... living with unprocessed trauma. We put this facade on and we pretend everything's okay. And everything was all buttoned up. And when inside the person's truly suffering, and unfortunately, and I've had suicidal ideation, I know what it's like to consider that. And it's a really deep, dark place to be. And no one wants to talk about it. But until we talk about it and put it out there, that's when people are really going to start to feel seen and heard and willing to go and get the help that They deserve. They deserve to be happy. You deserve to have purpose in your life and reclaim your power and have some of that agency back in your life. I talk about a lot about like inner child work and the way we react to things as adults is the way that we were taught how to deal with it when we were children. And there's no shame around what our parents do because they were doing just the best that they knew how. With the tools that they had. So I think a lot of growth can happen when you accept your diagnosis and are willing to put in the hard work and recognize that you're not going to heal overnight. And just when you think you are healed, something's going to trigger you. Oh, yeah. And it's a test. And it's a test to say, are you using the tools in your toolbox now? Right. And that's hard work.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 33:43

Wow.

Megan McGlynn : 33:44

That's why a lot of people don't do the work, which is understandable.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 33:47

So nine years in, you're going through therapy. As your child started to grow, you had some more challenges that you recognized. How has now parenting a neurodivergent child shaped how you show up as mom, wife, partner, person? So... That's a great question. Take me to that one.

Megan McGlynn : 34:07

Sure. Well, I feel like just like the expectations I placed on this whole birthing experience, I also placed them on parenthood. Yeah. I was traditionally raised in a structured household and my husband was raised in a home not as rigid. So I think we both came into parenting with a different expectation of what parenting looks like.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 34:30

Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 34:31

And he wasn't raised within an authoritative parenting style. And there was this level of mutual respect between the parent and child in their home. And his dad, also military, but never cracked a belt, never felt the need to instill fear to make the boys behave or feel respected. There was a lot of room given to be independent and think for themselves. And whereas uh, that wasn't really always the case for me. And while I was raised in, uh, a really loving home with two great parents, um, I was raised to be a confident young woman, but there was an expectation of respecting upwards and decorum and, uh, doing as you're told, no questions asked. I think that's our military background. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad's retired army Colonel. So there's, um, there's always that instilling respect in one's elder. And there was little room to have an opposing opinion. And I was a very opinionated child. Weren't we all? Yes, very independent. I kind of wanted to go my own way. But our child needed and still needs a softer kind of parenting, which has been really hard to learn. And I've spent... the last 10 years raising my voice so she can hear me. And she could hear me, but she didn't feel heard. And that's just based on my upbringing. And I really didn't know any different. And I felt like I was failing constantly and not respected. And it's because I wasn't feeling like I received respect on command. And that's what I was taught, right? But Bear is this beautifully creative, neurodivergent, free spirit who sees the world through a different lens. I

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 36:38

love your pictures, by the way. She

Megan McGlynn : 36:39

is beautiful. Oh, thank you. Yeah, she's my grunge punk kid who subsists on rock music and black eyeliner and combat boots and anime. Yeah, I always tell her like, How did you come out of my body? Like, you could not be more different from me. You know, she's, she's just this brilliant little being and challenging at times, you know, she's not neurotypical. And I think that makes her really exceptional in our eyes. And we always tell it's her superpower. But, you know, with that comes like a lot of challenges, right? She has really, in particular, taught me that love is unconditional.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 37:17

Yeah.

Megan McGlynn : 37:17

And it's okay for a child to have an opinion. It's okay for them to see the world differently than I do. And we really have to nurture their own God-given talents and interests. She's on her own personal journey. And I'm just here to support and guide her. And to relinquish that control is, I think, the hardest challenge for me as a parent. But I always... I think she knows that we have her back and are advocates for her in her school and activities. And I think she's taught me that it's necessary to ask our kids for forgiveness. And that's something I never heard in our house was, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry I made you feel that or that you feel that my words made you feel that way. So we've had some really deep discussions now that she's older. She's turning 13 next month. And It's

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 38:15

crazy we have 13-year-olds.

Megan McGlynn : 38:17

Gosh, I know. It goes by so fast. How do we have teens? I know. And the days are long, but the years are really, really short. That saying is so true. And you look back and you're like, oh my gosh, how are you a teenager now? And just really coming into her own. But yeah, parenting is a challenge. But I think when you start to open yourself up to other ways of parenting and not so stuck on, I'm doing this because this is the way that I was taught. You

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 38:50

know, some really wonderful things come out of that growth. Well, I'm going to shift us a little bit. So I know you've made a lot of pivots in the years too with careers. And I'm excited to hear more about that because I have been following you over the years. What have you learned about pivoting, especially when the outcome has always been uncertain and we talk about control. So how has that been for you in that personal journey?

Megan McGlynn : 39:12

Wow. I could fill a hat rack with all the ones I've worn over the year. And this could probably be its own podcast episode. But yeah, I've worked in nonprofit fundraising to selling graphic design in New York City, where I met my husband who is based in California. And that brought me out that way. I briefly worked in insurance. I took a hiatus and worked for a bakery in Um, and then went to grad school at NC state for a year. And then I went back to California and I sold furniture to Silicon Valley startups and then started my own home-based wedding cake, high-end design wedding cake.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 39:49

Which to all my listeners, you all should have seen her cakes. They were so yummy. I just wanted to eat right through your screen. I

Megan McGlynn : 39:55

was like, well, it was a great creative outlet. I do have to say that. Um, it was a lot of work though. A lot of work. Um, And COVID really shut down that whole business because the wedding industry came to a big halt. And honestly, that was like a really great blessing in disguise because I was exhausted doing that kind of work. I was working 60, 80 hour weeks and making three wedding cakes and 900 mini desserts out of my kitchen. It was kind of this crazy time in our house. And there was a lot of tension in the house during that time. But it really took my sister-in-law who I just love dearly and we're very, very close. She was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2023, so a couple of years ago. And it just shifted my whole life. And I really think it showed me or opened the door to my true purpose. which is helping people heal their mind, body, and spirit through massage therapy and Reiki energy healing. I'll be really honest. I felt like a lost sheep from 2005 to 2023. I wondered why I never felt true fulfillment in any of these roles that I had taken on. And I can look through all these experiences now, the good, bad, and the ugly. And they really do create this beautiful tapestry of knowledge and empathy that I pull from every day as I now serve others in my practice. And it's one of my greatest life lessons is to allow yourself to turn pain into purpose. I had to go through this really difficult time this birthing experience with Bear. And I had to know what it's like to feel like moving away from your family 3,000 miles and feeling that loneliness and that disconnect. I had to go through some other things in my life. And then there are these little snippets from each career that I've had that have given me this wide foundation of knowledge to be able to converse with lots of different people and really kind of understand them in the place that they are in. I have people walking into my healing room on a daily basis looking so put together. They look like they have everything. You know, they're beautiful and they've got this career and they've got the kids and all the things, but they sit on my table and they fall apart. And so many people are feeling lost and lacking connection and and searching for meaning and purpose in their life. And they just need someone to hold this nonjudgmental loving space for them to breathe and reflect and recenter. So yeah, so my journey has been filled with a lot of tough spots, but I've had to go through them to be prepared for the work that I'm doing now.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 43:09

Absolutely.

Megan McGlynn : 43:10

And I think that's oftentimes the part of a healer's journey to be able to look at everything from a bird's eye view and do the hard work to find the tools and to be able to deconstruct all of these experiences which are oftentimes very painful but to rise above them and to shift that into a purpose

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 43:34

yeah and i feel a lot of that too i think as we've continued to grow older and all the things that we've been through i think I'm more purposeful and intentional about what it is that I am doing because I want it to be meaningful. I want to have what it is that I am doing that's serving a purpose. And so I love that you have that heart because I think we're all in this space now where it's like we're a hurting world and we need more real. We need more of that healing. from all the things that we've been through and we need more people to tell us we are not alone in this. What do you hope someone who's quietly struggling might take away from hearing your story?

Megan McGlynn : 44:18

Oh, I think my journey has taught me that everything is interconnected. Each person has a divine purpose. Every challenge in our journey carries the opportunity to learn something about yourself or others. And you never know when these life lessons are going to come back and provide insight in a new situation that requires some wisdom and perspective. And we don't really come into our human experience with that guidebook that we talked about. And attachment to expectation creates suffering. So allowing yourself to be open to what can be and being kind to others because we really don't know the burdens that others are carrying. When we open ourselves up to healing and detach ourselves from all these expectations, I think that's where living really happens.

Hidden Chapters (Genevieve) : 45:19

Absolutely. I'm so excited we got to do this. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Of course. Okay. So before we wrap up, I want to make sure that in the show notes, I can link your business. And I wanted to make sure everybody knows the big thing that you've created with your sister-in-law. Would you mind sharing what that is?

Speaker 00: 45:38

Sure. I'm so excited. And thank you for highlighting this.

Unknown: 45:43

My company called Portion Pete, my sister-in-law that was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2023, we together during one of her treatments

Megan McGlynn : 45:51

we often talked about how hard it was to find cards that truly reflected the experience of a person fighting and living with cancer you know whether it's a moment of gratitude for an infusion nurse or a dose of humor on a hard day or encouragement for a fellow fighter so one afternoon we were binging Gilmore Girls after a chemo treatment and we looked at each other and we were like let's make her own because I have a little bit of a design background and So that's how Portia and Pete came together and Portia and Peter, the names of her two chemo ports that we lovingly named. So together we come up with the messaging and I design them and she handles all of our Etsy orders and shipping. And that's a really, truly a team effort, but it's really provided a place and space for her to be able to turn that pain into purpose. And so we're really excited about the launch of Portion Pete. So thanks for highlighting it. Of course. And I will put all of that in the show notes along with your business in that. Awesome. All right, Meg, I appreciate you being on with me and allowing me to share your story. I'm so excited. And for everybody, this is my sorority sister. Yes, sisters for life. That's right. Wow, it truly meant the world to me that Meg trusted Hidden Chapters and this space with her story. I'm so grateful for her honesty, her heart, and the friendship we've shared since college. We both lived a lot of life since those days, and hearing how she transformed her pain into purpose, it truly is inspiring. One thing among many things she said has really stuck with me is that healing takes time. And sometimes it's not until we say our stories out loud that we realize how far we've come. And that is exactly what this podcast is about. Uncovering the hidden, tender, gritty, powerful chapters that shape us into who we are today. If Meg's story connected with you, I know she would be so touched to hear that. If you enjoyed this episode, would you take a second to share it with a friend or leave a quick review? It's a small thing that helps this podcast reach more hearts who need to know they're not alone either. Before we go, a big shout out to Meg and her sister-in-law Nikki for the beautiful work they're doing through Portia and Pete, a greeting card company that blends humor and heart, grown from Nikki's own cancer journey. I'll link it all in the show notes along with how to connect with Meg and explore the incredible work she's done as a massage therapist and Reiki energy healer. Until the next chapter. Keep listening for what connects us the most.