We recently connected with Sheena Jeffers and have shared our conversation below.

Sheena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

I spent nearly two years sailing around the Caribbean. During these times, I realized how important world travel is for everyone as a key component to life’s education. Space philosopher and author Frank White talks about the “overview effect,” the impact of looking down at the Earth from above and how it can create a shift in the way astronauts view and think about our planet and life itself. Traveling has a similar impact: it shows us how big and how small our world is; it shows how we’re all different and yet so very similar.

I wish everyone could go on a seafaring adventure to learn more about our planet, our societies and themselves.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began writing as a child. I was gifted journals, and I would record memories from my days. I studied print journalism and English in college, and received a scholarship for my writing. During and after college, I wrote for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington Examiner, Waterborne Magazine, Sailing Scuttlebutt, and one of my stories appeared in the anthology, Facing Fear Head On: True Stories from Women on the Water.

This is how my memoir LIVING TIDAL began. I would write down the happenings of my days as well as any emotions I was traveling through. Eventually, I sat down and went through the notes to create the memoir. I’m most proud of my bravery in living and then translating that to my writing. I believe our main job is to feel our way through this life, and I enjoy writing all of that down in a vulnerable and transparent way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My memoir is about the largest pivot I have done thus far in my life. I walked across the stage for my college graduation in 2008, right as the entire market crashed. The field I had studied–print journalism–was changing so rapidly, no one knew how to advise a newly-graduated class of print journalism students. I did what anyone would do: find a job, even if it wasn’t a dream job! I was working a full-time job and multiple part-time jobs in order to pay for life expenses, but I wasn’t happy or thriving. Just surviving.

When the opportunity to sail away came up for me, I was scared to leave everything I knew but it felt like something I had to do. I didn’t know how to sail, but I also didn’t know how to continue making my land-life work. I needed a big change; I needed something within me to change.

Sailing away from it all brought about a new perspective; a new understanding of my personal resilience; and, mostly, I learned I had options: I didn’t have to continue living a life that didn’t bring me any joy. I realized I could make decisions that would lead me down different paths, happier paths.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the idea that being a “good, nice rule follower” was the only way to be successful and happy in this life. Turns out, some rules are silly and inhibiting. I had to unlearn that fear should make all decisions for you (fear will make our worlds very small if we let it). I had to unlearn the feeling of always being a victim. I found my own power, energy, creativity and learned how to use those magnificent tools to say, “No, this isn’t for me.”

In my memoir, it’s brought up how I went out to sea to find myself–to become someone–but really, it’s about returning to who I was born to be. It was unlearning so much of what society had force-fed me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sheenajeffers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheenajeffers
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheenajeffersauthor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenajeffers