A Season in the Life: Julia Kaplan
Welcome to A Season in the Life - a WOMANhood interview series that stands to show how women are, rather than what women do. Because it’s 2023, and we need to reinforce that us simply being is more valuable than what we produce, contribute or achieve.
A Season is the Life shares snippets of real & relatable wisdom from women you would (and should!) know in your neighborhood. We do not highlight the influencers of the world, but instead the people you would bump into at the park, a fitness class or your local supermarket who could become a lifelong friend. These are the women who to me embody what it means to be a wild, open, multi-dimensional, authentic & innovative human being.
Each interview highlights 2 areas of each woman’s life. Areas where they feel like they have fully arrived into the woman their younger self once yearned to be.
For Julia - these areas are seeing beauty in the mundane, and approaching dating with intention. Let’s dive in.
I met the fun loving & bubbly Julia Kaplan online - as many of us have done in the recent years - where we bonded over our shared love & passion for quitting the hustle.
Julia has re-invented her life over the last year in many ways. She moved (back) to New York City, newly single (but not quite ready to mingle) & found purpose in founding her own corporate events company.
But above all else - ehe’s gone from chasing life, to grounding into it.
I’ve spent time with Julia in many capacities, but in interviewing her I gained perspective & insight in 2 areas of her life: dating & routine
I’m sharing just the punchlines of her wisdom in these areas. Because usually we don’t need the context, we simply need someone who’s willing to tell us the hard truth we’re unwilling to tell ourselves 🧚🏼♂️
What’s something you’ve discovered lately?
That the way I was raised is the most organic and beautiful life I can possibly imagine for myself. We so often fight our roots, but in moving back to New York (where I was raised) - I finally felt like I had arrived.
How do you orient yourself in such a dynamic & stimulating city as NYC?
The beauty is in the routine. There is still newness is doing something over and over again. Familiarity is what allows for deepening.
What has your routine allowed for?
To stop being so hungry to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be. In my constant search to find who I was, I was constantly experiencing newness. And this is what was the most dis-regulating of all.
Tell us the secret in your routine…
I never miss more than one day in a row. And I always am sure to walk. Because it feels good to walk. And it’s the best reminder I’ve found that everything we do should be about the feeling it creates, rather than the outcome.
What’s your honest perspective on dating these days?
I find it crazy that we jump into relationships with people we don’t really know. And not just jump in, but catapult ourselves into figuring out how to merge lives. We wouldn’t do this with potential new friends… so why do we do it with potential partners?
What do you find so crazy about it?
We already have to meet “the right person at the right time” for it to work. But in this day and age of hyper-speed dating… we literally have to meet the right person in the right hour of the right day of the right month of the right year for it to work!
What happens if we slow down in the dating game?
Bringing someone into your life slowly & intentionally allows for your presence to organically enhance their life. The fireworks will come in moments you least expect them, and as such should more pleasantly surprise you (rather than be the expectation in the “honeymoon phase” at the outset of meeting someone).
What’s your universal must-have for any potential partner?
They must know themselves, and well. They should have their own vision for life, and not be waiting for someone else to empower them.
What’s one thing you’ve taken away from our friendship?
That it feels good to be so committed to playing in spaces that feel like the beginning of the iPhone adoption curve (as you once said to me, and I now say often to my circles). It’s made me more willing to be open about living in a slower, more intentional (and different) way to those around me in NYC.
Above all else, what do you want people to know?
The importance of depth. Because when you’re in survival mode - and you inevitably will be in survival mode - having deep relationships are what will make you feel alive.