Applicant #34: Maureen Marinkovich

Maureen Marinkovich is a mom from Friday Harbor.

My video application:

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A bit about me:

My mom was a great athlete so she got all four of her children involved in sports from a young age. Cross Country and Track were our main sports. I grew up in Tacoma. So did my husband. We moved to San Juan Island for an adventure and that has been a great decision. Our kids love growing up here. We are a commercial fishing family and that is a big part of our lives. We love selling Matt's catch to new and long loyal customers. Thanks for this opportunity!

My blog post:

My kids have taught me to…

I always wanted to be a mom. I was in elementary school in the late seventies and feminism was all the rage so on some level I knew when someone asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” that I shouldn’t reply “mom.” Instead I said, “Doctor” because I knew that was an answer that people wanted to hear. Inside, I said to myself, “Can I just be a mom?”

So I grew up. I knew what I wanted but I still had to make sure to find the right person and figure out how to parent after having lots of chaos in the home environment. So I took parenting classes, and in college I took a course called “Marriage and Family”. I even went to therapy to make sure I would be the best mom I could be by working through whatever issues would interfere with parenting and being a happy person.

We have been blessed with three lovely girls. They are really great people. But even after preparing for this career, I still falter, like we all do. Learning about things in school or class is helpful but the real life can be overwhelming if you don’t have the tools. The nicest thing of all has been that my kids have taught me to relax and enjoy life because they are having happy childhoods. So with practice I have gotten better at my job but it is my children who teach me every day how to relax and sit back and enjoy life. They use good judgment. They choose fantastic friends. They work hard at life and they are happy.

Maureen