Susan

I have envied all my life. Wanting all the things other people had that I believed would somehow make me more worthy, more lovable, more enough. Thinner. Braver. Stronger. Powerful. Articulate. Athletic. Patient. Better at sports, golf, business, conversation, life. I spent years believing other people possessed something I lacked. That if I could just become more like them, I would finally arrive at some magical version of myself that felt secure, admired, confident and complete. What I...

I had two boys, one vaginally and one by C-section. I wouldn’t trade either experience for anything. I will never forget the overwhelming love I felt holding each of them for the first time, lying in that hospital bed, just the two of us, looking into each other’s eyes. We hoped our boys would be best friends. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Our oldest carries my laid-back side, our youngest my high-adrenaline side. Their personalities, interests, and ways of being are completely different....

I don’t have any recollection of a time when I was touched without consent. I’ve thought about it. I’ve really looked. Nothing. I know that’s not the story many women carry, and I don’t take that lightly. But when I dug deeper, what kept coming up for me wasn’t touch. It was language. Nonconsensual language. Words that landed without permission, looks that said something before anything was spoken, messages that shaped how I saw myself long before I had the awareness to question them. I liked...