On a recent Saturday morning, we met up with Sarah Dunn and her young son. Dunn, a new mother to Jack, works remotely managing a design research team for a Texas based company. Her husband, Casey, is a celebrated architectural photographer, and together the pair have built a home on Austin's East Side that is the stuff of West Texas dreams.
Read on to learn more about Sarah, her transition to motherhood and more, below.
— MB
what's your name, where you are from & what you do for work and fun?
My career has been a little winding but I found my way from advertising into product design, first as a program manager, then a design researcher, and I now manage a team of design researchers on the digital team at H-E-B. As an introvert, I find the role gives me permission, an “in,” to connect and relate with people. As design researchers, we focus on uncovering what problems our products or services need to solve for our users and customers, and we collaborate with designers, product managers, and engineers to come up with solutions to those problems. Now that I’m managing, my focus is more on growing the team and how we work together. It’s nice to feel like my past as a program manager has finally meshed with my passion for research.
Fun looks a little different lately. Now it’s making Jack laugh, going for walks, and seeing friends when I can. Hopefully soon we’ll get back into gardening and hiking more.
As a new mom, what are you drawn to from the MBS collection and why?
The Muse Dress is calling me right now. Prior to becoming a mom, I never reached for long, flowy things. But now, with always needing to partially dress and un-dress, I really appreciate having something soft and loose to throw on over a nursing tank and instantly feel put together again.
the biggest surprise that has come with motherhood so far?
Before becoming a mom, my life was pretty stable. I could look a few months out and predict what my life would be like… generally the same. When I was pregnant, people warned me about how quickly Jack would go through changes, but I haven't felt this in the sense that I thought I would. I thought it was all about him changing, and I've since learned that literally everything changes, not just once, but over and over again. The way life is now is not how life will be a month from now, much less three months from now... There’s a new comfort in the impermanence of my thoughts, feelings, challenges, realities. How Jack is now is not forever, how I'm feeling now is not how I'll feel forever, how Casey and my relationship is now will not be forever either. Other parents may not find this surprising, but it came as a startling and refreshing realization for me.
