It was the year 2010. The year Apple unveiled the iPad, Time Magazine named Mark Zuckerberg as their Person of the Year and Congress passed the Affordable Care Act.

I was a 34-year-old mom of a preteen living in Bethesda, Maryland and reading the latest neighborhood book club book: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.

I loved how Nora (best known for When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Julie and Julia) while living in Manhattan, never styled her own hair, always got it done at the salon. How she shrugged off the expensive bag obsession and used whatever random tote bag was close by. And wrote "wickedly witty" prose (according to The Boston Globe). She was a woman living life on her own terms.

One day, I stumbled on one of Nora's famous lines “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”

In that moment, made a vow. A resolution if you will.

I would be my own heroine.

Being a heroine happened in small moves, of course. But boy did those small moves produce big results.

We all make vows, for better or worse, so to speak. I’m gathering all of mine up into a beautiful bouquet that will be the foundation of my memoir.

That’s right, before we write our memoirs, we need to do the research.

What vows have you made to yourself in the dark—for better or for worse—that changed the trajectory of your life?

Join me for 6 months of this glorious self-research.

Beginning this September, a group of women writers and aspiring writers and other curious people will gather together on Tuesday mornings (“Tuesdays with Jill?”) to capture our pivotal moments and create our gorgeous bouquets.

Stay tuned for more details and news about exciting special guests.