Saturday, July 4, 2015

Independence



Every four months, I get bored.  As an INTP (the same Myers-Briggs personality type that makes Big Bang Theory characters so adorable), I do not like doing the same mundane, predictable things over and over.  Rather, I need some kind of challenge so I can think about it

Being married was one such challenge, and I was hardly ever bored.  Next, being a single working mother of two preschoolers kept me on my toes. 

These days, the kids occasionally lose a tooth or argue, but I no longer cogitate about how I cannot possibly do this by myself.  This has freed me up, over the last two years, to take up tennis, meditation, online dating, blogging, and (briefly) cooking.  A few of these have been unqualified successes, and the others were fun while they lasted. 

Because the kids are sometimes with their dad, these jaunts don't take much time away from them.  Plus, they advance my parenting plan: showing that Being A Grown-Up is Not A Drag.  In fact, the main thing that separates adulthood from childhood is a heady sense of agency -- of being able to do pretty much what you want. 

The older I get, the more this sense of personal freedom expands.  (Sure, I have bills to pay and tasks to do, but -- in a larger sense --  I "chose" them, rather than choosing to be an itinerant rail-rider, which doubtless comes with its own set of problems.)

I've lived in the Bible Belt, New England, and the Bay Area; worked as a waitress, newspaper reporter, front desk clerk, corporate litigator, activist, English tutor, and government attorney; and studied chemistry, Constitutional law, and medieval poetry.  I got married, had two kids, and now am happily divorced and re-coupled.  Throughout it all, no one has said "You can't" or even "You shouldn't."   I have been waved through every door, with a "Sure, why not you?  Give it a try!" 

My latest venture is a 6 a.m. exercise class, three days a week -- because I felt like it was time for a new challenge.  By now, I am so accustomed to freedom and opportunity, I don't think twice about lighting out in any direction that strikes my fancy.  ("Sure, why not you?") 

Thank you America, for everything.  You really "get" me.  Mwah. 

(Image: "Statue of Liberty, WrestleMania" by Schen (Del Rio Fireworks) (CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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