The Taming of a She Wolf

What I remember was
Her passion for architecture.
Perhaps it was the idealistic
Dream of a young woman
At the start of her career,
Eager to take on life,
Naively determined to leave
Her mark on the world,
With no sense of limitations
Or the difficulties
She would one day face.
All I know is that
She seemed utterly fearless,
And on fire with possibilities
Of what architecture could be.
Supremely self-confident,
The world was her oyster.
After all, what could I,
Or anyone else, logically expect
From a girl who,
On her own initiative
And hard work
Won a five-year
All-expense-paid scholarship
To one of the top three
Architectural schools in the US.
She had shown her mettle
On her first job
After graduating,
Becoming a shooting star
In the architectural world.
She lined up eleven interviews
For her next position,
And ended up with
Eleven job offers
To choose from.
Those were exciting times
And there seemed
No limit to how far
She could go.
She quickly obtained her license,
And was able to take on
More and more responsibility,
But something changed.
She was no longer the bright-eyed
Bushy-tailed, unstoppable woman
I fondly remembered.
It was almost as if
Someone else had
Taken over her spirit.
The global economic crisis
Had hit the US big time,
And the company
She worked for
Was struggling to survive.
She was forced to take
A ten percent pay cut
Along with everyone else.
Even with that,
More than half her co-workers
Lost their jobs during the recession
Which left those remaining
Profoundly insecure.
I could hear the change
In the way she talked,
And in what she said.
I started hearing her
Say things like,
"They don't pay
Architects very much!"
Or just as lethal,
"They pay woman less
Then they do men
For the same work."
Instead of talking about
All the things she wants to do,
She is now focused
On the things she has
Not yet done,
As if they are stopping her
From advancing further.
She even talks about
Getting out of the field altogether,
And pursuing art,
Or something else
She enjoys doing.
What I hear is burn out,
The slow death
Of a once passionate artisan.
I know,
For I have been there myself.
What I have observed
Is that life is largely determined
By our attitude,
And hers is obviously waning.
It is as if she is trapped,
With nowhere else to go.
The wolf she was
Has been defanged,
And unless something changes,
She may come to hate
Her job and profession,
And of course,
The turmoil she is in
Inevitably will be carried back
To plague her family.
Once a person's confidence is lost,
Can it ever be regained?
Is there anything I could say
That would ease her struggle?
It is times like these
That can easily make or break
A budding professional,
And I certainly don't
Want to see her spirit broken
Any more than
It already is.
She doesn't have to
Be an architect, as long as
She enjoys what she does,
But if she chooses not to be
An architect,
My hope is for her
To go out with
A blaze of glory
Verses a whimper.