S1 E19 You Don't Need Permission to Want More: Trish Mallabar on Choosing a Different Kind of Life

What if the life you've been quietly craving has been waiting for you to simply say yes? This episode is for anyone who's ever stood at the edge of something unfamiliar and wondered whether it was too late to step through.

Trish Mallabar spent more than three decades as a teacher — and like so many women who pour themselves into a vocation, she arrived at midlife not quite sure who she was without it. This conversation begins there, in that tender and disorienting space between a life well-lived and one still unfolding.

What follows is a rich, unhurried conversation about burnout, the slow erosion of identity, and what it actually feels like to walk away from something that defined you. Trish speaks with honesty about perimenopause, the weight of a system that asked too much, and the moment she realised she needed to choose herself.

But this episode isn't about loss. It's about what opens up when you create enough space to let life surprise you — strangers who appear at just the right moment, the pull of ancestry, the unexpected comfort of aged care work, and the quiet joy of birdwatching at Lake Weyba on Mother's Day.

Trish and Margit share a warmth and history that makes this conversation feel less like an interview and more like two women sitting together with a cup of tea, being honest about the things that matter most.

In this episode, we explore:

• What it costs to build your identity around a vocation and what it takes to let it go

• The relationship between burnout, perimenopause and finally saying enough

• How slowing down on the road opened something up that rushing never could

• The strangers who appeared at exactly the right moment

• What ancestral connection feels like in your body, even across a language barrier

• Why midlife might actually be the best time to discover something completely new