Age: 39
Lives: Springfield Township
Works: Sales
As I lay comfortably on the chaise lounge taking in fresh air and my surroundings I would have once been oblivious to, I appreciate solitude: the Me, Myself and I.
I dove into my womanhood headfirst. In the induced attempt to grow up, the inner child I was so unaware of at the time was dying. I was on a mission to become a bona fide woman.
Precociousness followed and, with it, a series of complex issues emerged which resulted in a crash course in womanhood. No boundaries here.
The selfish “do it if it feels good” mentality prevailed despite my Catholic upbringing. The early burdens and responsibilities took their toll physically and emotionally. Spiritually, I was dead.
Recreation is akin to procreation and, thus, more natural for us as women. Throughout my many passages of life, I’ve been reborn, developing into the person I have finally come to love and accept.
And, still, I am on the verge of so much more.
The peaks and valleys that make up my days are experiences I now embrace and don’t whine about. It’s the excitement of standing on the edge of each anticipatory event and leaping or going through an emotional aneurysm and laughing afterward, which makes me not like the veteran woman wannabe whom I once sought, but like a child always on the brink of a new discovery.
How ironic! Simple, yet deep. Gentle, yet powerful.
Like birth, like breath, like me.
This article appears in May 9-15, 2001.