My mom’s school held a Career Day last week, and the principal called and asked me to come in and speak to the middle-schoolers.

I appreciated that he wanted me to participate, but the request really made me think.

What, exactly, do I do these days?

At this time last year, I would’ve talked to the kids about my life as a journalist. I could’ve talked to them about the newspaper industry and how I fell into it.

I would’ve told them about being a copy editor and page designer who crafted nationally recognized pages about love, loss, and life’s messiness.

But now …

… Now I’m a mama. Now I spend my days celebrating my daughter’s milestones — crawling, standing, learning, growing. I’m an entertainer, a teacher, a chauffeur, and a poop scooper.

Now, I’m a Pinterest Mom. Not a great one, but a Pinterest Mom nonetheless.

Now I’m trying to grow a blog that started as therapy but grew into something more.

What could these kids possibly learn from me?

Career Day was becoming my nightmare. But I showed up anyway.

When I walked into the pre-speech meet-and-greet, I encountered professionals from a variety of fields: an entertainment lawyer; a nurse; a banker; a cook; a pilot.

And then there was me.

The thought of speaking after those people made me a little sick to my stomach, but I stuck around anyway.

Finally, it was my turn.

With a dozen sets of young eyes on me, I smiled as genuinely as possible and let the words spill out.

“Good morning! My name is Crystal, and I’m a mom blogger.”