About two weeks ago I emerged at the Circular Quay train station, eager to waste some time in visible proximity to the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, while I waited for Richard Dawkins to show up in the latter. I didn't get far out of the station before a kind-eyed brown man approached me and asked for directions. When I was finished explaining he needed to go to Town Hall station, he gave me some impromptu future predictions. "You will see many countries, you will have two children maximum, you have to watch your health... but money will not be a problem." I acknowledged his attempts to see a future version of me, then quietly excused myself before he asked me some non-feminist-friendly questions (sometimes you can tell it's only a matter of time before they come out).
I felt oddly comforted by this unwanted stream of the outsider perceptions. I have already seen many countries, but I do not intend to end at 33. There's so much more to see, and I like to think I'm just starting. Children? Just a few months ago I'd represented myself as so unhappy with the current state of the world that I felt it would be no good to bring children into it. But I guess I have woken up to the possibility that I may have children and perhaps a family around them one day. I imagine that if I did have them, they would be raised in the most gender-progressive country of my choice, Sweden.
As for watching my health, this makes a lot of sense. I have PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome) and am pre-diabetic, so I need to invest energy into keeping myself as healthy as possible. I won't give up on my life, as Lady Gaga sings in Marry the Night.
Money not being a problem is a comforting thought as well, because my parents worry so much about my future that I worry that I should be worrying myself. Then I remember that worrying is something I'm always sorry to have done. It serves no positive purpose. Any act that can be done while worrying can be done without it, at a higher success rate. (But, enough preaching...)
I felt oddly comforted by this unwanted stream of the outsider perceptions. I have already seen many countries, but I do not intend to end at 33. There's so much more to see, and I like to think I'm just starting. Children? Just a few months ago I'd represented myself as so unhappy with the current state of the world that I felt it would be no good to bring children into it. But I guess I have woken up to the possibility that I may have children and perhaps a family around them one day. I imagine that if I did have them, they would be raised in the most gender-progressive country of my choice, Sweden.
As for watching my health, this makes a lot of sense. I have PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome) and am pre-diabetic, so I need to invest energy into keeping myself as healthy as possible. I won't give up on my life, as Lady Gaga sings in Marry the Night.
Money not being a problem is a comforting thought as well, because my parents worry so much about my future that I worry that I should be worrying myself. Then I remember that worrying is something I'm always sorry to have done. It serves no positive purpose. Any act that can be done while worrying can be done without it, at a higher success rate. (But, enough preaching...)
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