Guest Blogger

Happy 4th! Give it up for my guest blogger, Tammie (password protected now-this was originally written in 2006)  We're exchanging blogs for the day. The assignment was "Freedom" and let me tell you, it isn't easy to think of something that isn't loaded with cliches. I think she did great!


Latitudes
From the time I was 5 until I was 17, the epitome of freedom for me was the last day of school before summer vacation. There was nothing like that feeling of hearing the final bell ring and seeing three whole months stretching out before me, full of possibility.


These days, with the myriad of adult responsibilities that I deal with every day, freedom means a hundred different things.


I’ve been trying lately to look at the many positives in my life and appreciate how fortunate I am, rather than focusing on the negatives. I am so extremely lucky to be living in this time, under these circumstances. The freedoms I enjoy span an enormously broad spectrum. For example, Jeff and I are struggling with infertility and we don’t know when we’ll have a baby. But on the other hand, I can still sleep in if I want to. We can take off and travel at a moment’s notice and for the moment, my body and life are still my own. As much as I want a child, all of that freedom changes when we have a baby. I know everything will be worth it, but you’d better believe I am making the most of the autonomy we have now.


In my personal life, I have often struggled with finding my identity and being true to myself. In the last few years, I feel I’ve sort of come into my own in that regard. I have surrounded myself with people with whom I am comfortable enough to be myself. I feel loved and supported. The feeling of freedom that comes with knowing, without a doubt, that I never have to fake it or be anyone but who I am is absolutely amazing.


Freedom comes in many colors and sizes. My husband and I are fortunate to have good jobs (well, since we just moved to Florida, he has a job and I’m unemployed for the time being – another type of freedom altogether) and to be in a solid financial situation. On a more global scale I am among the luckiest people in the world to live in a country where as a woman, I can do and be whatever I choose.


Life is good and my focus lately has been to try hard not to take any of it for granted.