Women on a Mission

Almost one year ago, a world-wide pandemic halted life as we knew it. Even the NBA cancelled their season, so we all knew it was super serious. I drove straight to the department store before it closed up shop and bought an extra bottle of my foundation, and then I started ordering athleisure online. Colleen Waguespack, founder of Fig & Dove, decided this would be a good time to redecorate her house.

Colleen is one of my very favorite friends, and her enthusiasm and her energy can spark a party and keep a conversation alive. But when the rest of us were camping in tents outside the supermarket for that last square of toilet paper, Collen was welcoming random workers into her house to repaint the rooms. She was sleeping in one of her son’s beds as her bedroom got refinished. She was gutting closets. She was a woman on a mission.

Now, anyone who knows Colleen might be amused but would not be perplexed by this 2020 story. After all, this hardworking, successful interior designer launched Fig & Dove out of fanciful and original ideas in her head and convincingly brought this vision to life. She’s never given up, even during inevitable small business challenges that would make some women hang up their hat.

But Colleen also recognizes the importance in celebrating the everyday. She is a champion about it. During the height of the pandemic, Colleen reminded us that we all need to take time to stop and celebrate anniversaries and birthdays. Even, and especially, because we are busy. Because we are all women on a mission. We are all doing our own version of redecorating a house and sleeping in a bed that isn’t ours. We are working jobs, and helping with homework so our children can one day be employed. We are cooking dinner and working off that dinner at the gym. We are encouraging a friend and leaning on our friends for support. We are all women on a mission, and we are not only surviving—we are thriving.

So, in celebration of International Women’s Day, take a moment to stop and celebrate—really celebrate—the women in your lives who are juggling it all. These are your mothers, your sisters, your besties, yourself. Women on a mission make a difference in our personal lives and to the world around us. Women on a mission get things done. And in doing the thing, they making the future brighter for all of us.

So, cheers to International Women’s Day! May the gutted closets forever stay clean!

Ashley Sexton Gordon                                                                                  Friend of Fig & Dove                                                                                Freelance Writer                                                                                          Director of Communication Lt. Governor's Office                                                  Former Editor of inRegister Magazine