"His dad and I were separating, but it was beautiful, because I knew there was someone out there who was better for my husband than me. And when his tears finally stopped, he said that it was true, and it was time for him to say it out loud-that if he was being honest, the partner who was best for him was not a woman but a man."
"So, we held onto each other for dear life, like nothing would ever change, until we couldn't hold on any longer, and we moved past shame, and we moved past betrayal and into an empty space where neither of us knew who we belonged to anymore."
"I wanted love to work-I wanted it to. I didn't want to teach my daughter that even the strongest links can be broken. Teaching her to lead with skepticism would go against the very operating system I'd put every effort to mother into her: Lead with your heart."
"In the last six months, everything in my life had changed. I was a different person. The ponytail, though. I recognized her. That girl existed."
A mother faces simultaneous upheavals: her marriage is ending as her husband comes out as gay, her oldest daughter is leaving for college after a difficult breakup, and her son attends camp during this turbulent period. The narrator grapples with feelings of betrayal and shame while trying to shield her children from the chaos. She sends her son Goosy to camp hoping he'll find respite from family turmoil. As she packs for various transitions—dropping off her youngest at art camp and taking her oldest to college—the narrator confronts her own disorientation and identity loss. She discovers her passport and reflects on how profoundly she has changed in six months, yet recognizes remnants of her former self in old photographs and documents.
Read at The Walrus
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