Life in the Trees.

Thirty-three years ago I was born, and from that moment the confusion started. Every month I wanted to be something new when I grew up (architect, dancer, research scientist, actress, athlete, professor.....oh yeah, and wild treehouse-dwelling skinned-knee princess).

Even now, in my allegedly grownup state (oh hello, 'adulting', how are you?), I still want to grab every adult woman I see by the shoulders and just shake her screaming Hooooow? How do you do this? If she has a career or a family or even both (let's assume mommy is Leaning In), I just want to cry at her, How do you do it? How do you take something that is a passion and just make the leap and decide to do it all the time as your job, without being worried about having one, two, or three backup part-time jobs for the paycheck that take all your time and energy? 

If you aren't following your passion, then how do you get up every morning and go off to a job that you most likely hate, without one day snapping, throwing off all your clothes and running shrieking off to the woods to become a wild treehouse-dwelling princess? 

And for the love for everything that is womankind will someone please tell me HOW does anyone have the courage to have a child in this world, without being crushed to death by anxiety and fear? Will any one of you kindly ladies please tell me HOW???

I don't do any of this, however, because there are laws against assault, and these ladies have enough to do without a wild-eyed thirty-three year old womanchild shaking them by the shoulders and screaming unintelligibly. But still, the urge is there. Instead, I adjust my sunglasses, take another sip of my iced coffee, and wonder, for the thousandth time, if it's not too late to run off and become a treehouse-dwelling princess after all.

(posted by Laurel)