09/10/2026
Women Who Shaped Me: Regan
Regan has shaped me in a way only a daughter can.
As a little girl, she wore dresses every day and went through a phase when nearly everything had to be purple. She loved My Little Pony and her stuffed animals. When we had to go to the tornado shelter, she bagged them up so they could go too.
She was easygoing and usually listened the first time. So when she disappeared while playing with a neighbor friend, I went into full Nancy Grace mode. We eventually discovered the girls were playing video games in the back of a house and couldn’t hear us knocking.
In Pre-K and kindergarten, she had no interest in letters and sounds. Then her first-grade teacher told us she was reading The Tale of Despereaux fluently. I made her read it to me because I needed to see it for myself.
Years later, Regan told me she knew I thought she was smart, but she really wasn’t that smart. The next morning, she casually mentioned that she ranked in the top one percent. “Oh my goodness, Regan. See!”
She loved theatre, performed in A Christmas Carol through Lyric Theatre, and participated in show choir. The little girl who took toys apart eventually discovered robotics.
By middle school, Regan knew she wanted to become an engineer and attend college in California. USC flew her there to tour the campus and awarded her a four-year Presidential Scholarship. The Gates Scholarship covered the rest.
I was incredibly happy for her, but I also felt grief because I knew my role as her mother was changing. She experienced loss and other things that are not mine to share, but she kept going without her parents nearby.
She earned her degree in industrial and systems engineering and now works as an engineer in Pasadena, building the California life she imagined as a little girl.
She is wise beyond her years, but she still loves Disney movies and making slime. She will even relocate snakes. That part definitely did not come from me!
I miss having her here to go to yoga with me and hearing her ideas because she is simply fun to be around.
I raised Regan to believe she could get through hard things. Watching her live that lesson has reminded me that I can too.
