Paige Parker - Dont Call Me Mrs Rogers: Love Loathing and Our Epic Drive Around the World

ISBN: 978-981-46-5526-2
First Edition: October 2018
2018 by Paige Parker
Cover and author photos by Max Chan.
Wedding photos by Rebecca Flowerdew.
Used with permission.
Published in Singapore by Epigram Books
www.epigrambooks.sg
All rights reserved

Full of heart and insight Paige is the modern-day princess and dragon slayerfull of grit, guts and grace.

Jaelle Ang, entrepeneur and CEO of The Great Room

A charming, engaging memoir thats hard to put down, with pages of insightful gems about womanhood, motherhood and staying true to ones inner calling.

Dolores Au, CEO and co-founder of Mummyfique

For those who thrive by saying yes, who keep their eyes open to all that life has to offer, this book is a wake-up call

Geoffrey Kent, author of Safari: A Memoir of a Worldwide Travel Pioneer and founder of Abercrombie & Kent

A fascinating peek into the extraordinary world of Paige Parker (wife, mother, feminist), this memoir is like no other round-the-world journal.

Dr Jade Kua, president of the Association of Women Doctors (Singapore)

Proof that just like books, we can never judge the kind of experiences a person has had and how it can come to define them.

Tracy Phillips, director of Ppurpose

A truly inspiring read. I can only hope that my two girls will grow up with the same thirst for adventure and excitement as Paige has.

Charmaine Seah-Ong, co-founder of Elementary

Paiges brave and soulful stories are much more than a whirlwind travellers tale; they are a reminder of the sometimes harsh truth about this world we live in.

Pocket Sun, co-founder and managing partner of SoGal Ventures

An engaging tale filled with laughter, tears and the forthright observations we wish our own mothers might have had the temerity to fill us in on.

Su-Lyn Tan, co-founder and CEO of The Ate Group

Intimately written and beautifully crafted This is a story to inspire legions of women and men to take that plunge and go forth into the unknown.

Su Shan Tan, group head of wealth management and consumer banking at DBS

Wisdom so insightful, prose so simply beautiful, her memoir will leave every reader with indelible memories.

Lynn Yeow-de Vito, co-founder of Loop PR and Sassy Mama Singapore

For my daughters, Happy and Bee, and for yours, and for the countless drifters and dreamers who will slay many dragons on the road to self-fulfilment, equality and independence.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotryand narrow-mindedness.

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

Everyone thinks of changing the world

but no one thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy

I meet a lot of people in my life. As a wife, a mother and an active participant in a slew of initiatives from local arts to global causes, Im always out there.

If people were to judge me by my Instagram feed, theyd assume my life was all galas and openings, balls and benefits. And they wouldnt be totally wrong. I cant deny that I live a privileged life. I admit to loving pretty clothes and shiny blingespecially with so many talented designers all around me, right here in Singapore.

Some who make my acquaintance may call me a Tiger Mom. I cant really deny that either. After all, my childrens education was the reason I moved to Singapore in the first place. I take my daughters schooling and extracurricular activities very, very seriously.

Others I meet may simply regard me as Jim Rogers wife. And, of course, theyd be right about that as well. Although there are many times when it pains me to be overshadowed by his notoriety, or made invisible by his imposing personality, Im proud to be married to a man whose hard work and brilliant mind gave him the opportunity to retire from a career as a Wall Street hedge-fund heavy at 37 to pursue his passions, a man whose energy and curiosity outshine that of men half his age.

So yes, I am all of those things. But I am also Paige Parker. Not the Paige Parker I was before 29 December 1998, when I embarked on an adventure that changed me forevera three-year journey to the ends of the earth and back with my maybe-soon-to-be husband.

The before Paige Parker was a small-town girl from the all-American city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Smack dab between New York and Florida, Rocky Mountpopulation 50,000was known as a pit stop for those driving up or down the East Coast. It was a place where dining on ethnic food meant eating pizza. Where going to the theatre meant seeing a double feature matinee. It was a place built on cotton mills and tobacco and apple brandy, brought to life in the mid-1800s by the railroad that arrived to connect Rocky Mount to the outside worlds both north and south, where the RaleighTarboro stagecoach stopped to carry debarking travellers wanting to continue east or west. Rocky Mount was a place for people looking to go elsewhere. No wonder I did what I did. It was in my DNA.

I was happy in Rocky Mount, a well-adjusted kid who fit in with the rest. I was a dancer, cheerleader, oratorical contest winner, Junior Miss. But I was always a dreamer. Back then, my dreams were just thatdreams. It was from Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume that I learned about the virtues of spunk and self-reliance. Nancy Drew became my role model as a strong, adventuresome woman, one who always remained cool under fire. Disney Worlds Epcot Center opened my 13-year-old eyes to faraway lands and the wonders of other cultures.

In reality, I remained untouched by the outside world. Those who knew me during those years would never have imagined me, in real life, actually battling sand storms and blistering heat, outrunning armed insurgents and civil wars, confronting corrupt officials, fighting off gropers and grifters, and learning to skilfully deal with malaria, filth and enough red tape to wrap an elephant.

Ive no doubt there are plenty of acquaintances since who cannot imagine this either. Because my journey didnt affect me in any way that would be obvious to outsiders. I didnt come home with blue skin or a new accent, or rings through my cheeks. But I had changed. And what I see now is just how much the experiences during my incredible trip around the world have informed the way I live my life, every minute of every day.

I started to write about my adventure the minute I set foot on US soil again. Then life got in the waytwo daughters, a handful of a husband and a move halfway across the globe. I kept at it whenever I had the chance, hoping to leave a chronicle for my children, wanting them to know all I had seen and done in my life before they came along. Jim, being Jim, wrote and published his own book within just over a year of our return. But when I read Adventure Capitalist , I knew it wasnt my story. Were we even in the same car together? It amazed me just how different two peoples takes on a shared experience could be.

Now, after turning fifty, I realise that its not just for my daughters that this story needs to be told. Its for all the women who are finding their own way in this big, wide world. Those who will thrive by saying yes, by keeping their eyes and their hearts open to all that life has to offer. Those who are tempted to push boundaries, to dare to do the unexpected.

Its also for all those women I met, from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, who taught me about ambition and strength and resourcefulness, and the courage it takes to navigate a world driven by men. The women I saw who would do anything for the sake, or even the survival, of their children. The women who showed me what it means not to be a quitter. Theirs are the timeless stories that need to be told.