This is NPR's Book the Day. I'm Kia Miyaka-Natis. Mary Louise Kelly is one of the NPR voices that many listeners have come to know and depend on. Her decades-long career has spanned covering national security to anchoring all things considered, all that while juggling the pressures and responsibilities of raising two young kids.

Her memoir, It Goes So Fast, the Year of No Do-Overs, Chronicles the hard choices she's faced over the years,

navigating the conflicts of her career in motherhood and making the most of the time she has left with her kids

before they go off to college and embark on their own adventures. Here she talks with NPR Scott Simon about making meaning

in a life that goes by faster than you realize. In the U.S., national security news can feel

far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant

events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your

podcasts. Most parents, mothers especially, probably gotten a call from a school saying your child is sick,

come get them, that what if you're boarding a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad?

Mary Louise Kelly, our esteemed colleague and co-host of a show called All Things Considered,

contends with the balance between work and life, anchoring the news and anchoring a family with two teen sons growing up in her new book.

It goes so fast, the year of no do-overs. And I'm Terry just reading the intro.

Mary Louise Kelly joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you, Scott. What was that like to get a call like that? Yeah, we're about to get loaded up into a swarm of Black Hawk helicopters.

Phone rings. School nurse telling me, your son is sick, where are you? Can you come to school?

And I'm thinking, lady, if you can see where I am, no, that's not happening. And she started talking more loudly and said, I don't mean to bring him home. I mean, he's really sick. He's struggling to breathe. We need to get him to a doctor or a hospital. Now, where are you? And I was trying to answer, and the cell phone died. We lost signal. And I have to get into this helicopter. And I will never forget sitting there in the Blackhawk, looking down over the traffic of Baghdad and thinking,

what am I doing?

I'm good at my job.

I worked really hard to get here.

I love my work.

But my four-year-old son needs me and I'm halfway around the world.

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