Over the past 20 years, I’ve noticed something about transformation. It follows a pattern and last week I saw it again, this time through my daughter.

Bia’s back.

It’s hard to believe that six months have already passed and the first half of Grade 10 has been completed on the other side of the world.

Days that started at -20 degrees and ended walking home from school in a t-shirt at +20….a far cry from life just below the equator.

She flew to Winnipeg from Toronto alone to see one of my oldest and dearest friends, thank you Liz Wreford. She skied for the first time in the mountains in Quebec for a whole week with another, thank you Steph. She went to a Blue Jays game in Toronto with a third, thank you Amy Brown.

Three incredibly close friends, three different corners of my life, and all showing up for my daughter in their own way.

She took the bus to school, made her own lunch, kept track of what she needed from the pharmacy and grocery store, and organised her own visits to see my Mum. It all sounds quite ordinary, but it wasn’t. She became independent in a way that’s genuinely hard to do from here in Brazil.

None of it would have been possible without my brother and his wife. Ziggy and Elena welcomed her into their family for six months and treated her like one of their own. Thank you doesn’t quite cover it, but thank you.

I’ve watched this arc unfold SO many times now; in me, in Bia and in the people I work with.

First comes the unsettling beginning, when everything feels foreign and even the smallest frictions feel enormous.

Then comes the missing home stage. It’s not about missing a place necessarily, but instead missing the ease of things you never even noticed or thought about before.

And then, almost without noticing, something shifts (I can almost pin point when it will happen).

You stop translating and start inhabiting. What was unfamiliar becomes ordinary, and instead of simply surviving, you then begin pushing yourself.

And THAT’s when the magic happens.

Shortly after returning from Canada last week, as Bia sat on her bed, taking her room back in, she said, “I feel as though my heart is feeling the same. But my head is different.”

It’s totally normal, Biazinha. It’s what happens when you let yourself be somewhere fully.

And it’s the same shift I see in every TIE Leadership programme, whether virtual or immersive.

First comes the discomfort. And then, almost without noticing, people stop trying to get through the experience and start leaning into it.

They ask different questions, build relationships they wouldn’t have built before, and take risks they wouldn’t have previously. And THIS is when real transformation begins.

It’s SO great to have her back. And I can’t wait to see what comes next. 💫

(Here is Bia hugging my brother goodbye last week 🥹)