The Beauty Found in Rewriting Life’s Script in My 50s

I always pegged myself as someone who was going to follow a perfectly scripted plan for my life.

Oh, how wrong I was

After graduating college with honors, I paid my dues in television news and ultimately landed my dream job as a morning anchor in my hometown of Denver. A few years later, my husband and I welcomed healthy boy-girl twins into our lives.

I was often physically exhausted due to my alarm clock going off shortly after 2:00 a.m. every weekday morning, then rushing home after my work shift to my other more important job: mom. But I had the best of both worlds—motherhood and career—and I was happy and fulfilled.

Then when our children were almost five years old, my husband got the professional opportunity of a lifetime out of state. Surprising everyone, including myself, I made the difficult decision to leave the career I’d built to support him.

I thought I was doing the right thing for my family

I had no idea how that choice would impact my self-identity, sense of self, and earning power for years to come.

What followed was a long journey of sacrifice and reinvention. Wanting a more flexible schedule, I pivoted my professional path to public relations. I enjoyed the work but limited my career growth to what could happen between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., when the kids were in school.

I loved being a mom, and the privilege of spending quality time with my children filled my heart. My soul, however, longed for more. 

So, I set out to become a better me. I committed to more yoga, meditation, spiritual retreats and reignited my creativity through hobbies like painting.

This deep dive into Katie enriched me as a person and reconnected me to parts I’d forgotten or neglected in the process of caring for others.

Ironically, I was never in a better place of self-love, inner peace, and awareness than when my then-husband was straying.

I was devastated when we divorced, but I was also prepared to change the narrative about my life, and my perspective.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined how far my life would stray from my ideal vision, the perfect script.

And yet, the diversion also presented me with an incredible new opportunity—the ability to focus on myself, and what I needed to feel whole.

As a journalist, I always believed I would someday write a book. I just wasn’t sure what I wanted it to be about. Then, it hit me. After decades of telling other people’s stories in the news media and public relations, I realized it was time to share my own.

Not because I believed my story was so special, but because it wasn’t

I recognized that I wasn’t alone in losing myself in the process of caring for others. Many of us, women in particular, make sacrifices for the people we love and there are hidden costs to doing so.

I’m now in my mid-50s, remarried and experiencing love and passion I hadn’t expected at this stage.

My debut memoir, What Do I Tell My Daughter? Hard-won Wisdom for Tomorrow’s Women, publishes in the fall of 2026.

I hope it will uplift and encourage other women, make them feel seen, and recognize their lives have value, no matter the choices they make about career, marriage, and motherhood.  

I don’t know where any of this goes. But it’s my turn now. There are no distractions or expectations for any role except the one I want to play for myself.

I can no longer use my fears of failing, or letting other people down as excuses to not fully put myself out there.

I’m doing my best to allow the future to unfold as it’s supposed to and release any belief that there’s a perfect script to follow in life.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but this I know: I feel on purpose again, not as a mom, as a woman with a purpose to share with the world.

If telling my story, the messy, imperfect, and beautiful parts, empowers other women to pursue their dreams and nurture themselves the way they care for others, then all of it will be worth it.

Going off script and improvising can still lead to unexpected yet beautiful endings.

Purchase Katie’s book

Book Description

For fans of Glennon Doyle’s Love Warrior and Belle Burden’s Strangers, a candid debut memoir about one woman’s struggles with resentment and loss of identity—and eventual journey back to self—after leaving her dream job to focus on being a mom.

Katie Trexler was at the top of her game—thriving in her high-profile job as a local television news anchor, raising healthy young twins, and a leading a nearly idyllic life with her husband in the suburbs of Denver. Then believing it was the right decision for her family—and unaware of the toll it would take on her well-being—she gave up her dream career.

Years later, unsatisfied with where her path has led, Katie wonders, What do I tell my daughter about the choices I’ve made as a woman and mother? With raw honesty, What Do I Tell My Daughter? delves into the real and sometimes hidden costs of sacrificing parts of ourselves for the people we love—a reality Katie confronts first as a young mom and then again almost a decade later when her seemingly ideal life unexpectedly shatters.

Punctuated by hard-earned lessons about inner strength, self-love, and equality in relationships, this unflinchingly candid memoir is for any woman, any person, who has ever lost themselves while caring for others—and who is determined to reclaim their voice, redefine success, and model courage and awareness for the next generation.