PRINCESS MONSTER WIFE

synechdochic suggests we look back at what we've accomplished since March of 2007.

I turned 23 that month; I'm turning 30 this year. I lived at home and had never lived elsewhere 'cept for travel; I've since lived in Santa Rosa briefly (then home for twice as long), Sebastopol for a year and a half (then home again for twice as long), and now Pittsburgh for a year plus, and if you think this will eventually result in a refractory period back under my parents' roof let me tell u L O L. I've acknowledged, identified, and dealt with: my abusive family, my depression and anxiety disorders, my ADHD. I left one shitty school, flopped out of another (one and a half), applied and appealed to a third without result, and flirted with a fourth all with zero progress made towards a degree - but also with zero damage to my credit score or bank account, which as I face my thirties I am grateful for. I went through therapy and life coaching. I learned how to hold myself accountable. I lost Lucy, raised Rue, and adopted Minette. I quit one job, barely survived and came out with serious damage from another, temped my ass off while not unemploymenting my ass off, and was the very last holiday temp converted to perm at my current over-a-year job, where I'm currently valuabler than ever.

I went through the worst shit of my life and came out a fucking champion suffused with love, skill, self-knowledge, and gratitude. Beat that with a goddamn stick.