I understand, from what friends and others tell me, that I was supposed to outgrow this stage, the same way I outgrew believing in the tooth fairy, a benevolent God, or that whole “it’s what’s inside that really counts” deception. Maybe there was supposed to be a revealing shock somewhere along the way [...]

This is me at sixteen years old, writing, and appearing content with the world.
Ah, but if you could browse those pages I was writing, you wouldn’t see contentment at all. You would know about my anger, fear, dreams, and heartache, and you would know that I was planning my escape. To the beaches [...]

They hang in my closet as a reminder, a small torment, and something of a life jacket. I wore them when I last fell in love, hard and with almost reckless abandon, several years ago.
There was something about this particular pair of jeans that made me feel less humanly flawed and more invincible. [...]

Being Mother’s Day, I wondered if I should write a post about my mother but then I thought, no. It’s too sad, really, and not the kind of tribute others want to read. Many mothers, it seems, left dark mysteries and heartaches as legacies to their daughters. Mine was no exception. [...]