I Run These Towns

It was the last year of the millennium, and in the spring of 1999 my junior year of college finished in a much less dramatic fashion than it had begun. My stomach issues definitely weren't gone, but they were being managed better with medication. That summer my fiancé and I were separated for the first time (of what would be many) in our relationship as he went to Fort Knox, Kentucky for ROTC training. I decided to join the debate team my senior year, and I jumped in with both feet by attending debate camp (a real thing) at the University of Vermont in Burlington. I had similar issues to Germany: my stomach was really unhappy in Vermont. It was worse than it had been at home, and I was embarrassed my new friends would find out what was happening. I loved adding debate to my senior year. I knew I only had a year, so I attended every tournament I could. In the fall semester I was at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA, at the University of Richmond, the University of Rochester, NY

It was the summer of 1998. I was 19 years old and had the world in my hands. I'd just moved in with my brother and my boyfriend. I had my first grown up pet, a kitten I'd named Daisy (after Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby ). I received the opportunity to complete two semesters of foreign language credits by visiting Germany for a summer study abroad program. I was heading to Europe for the first time. Life was good. My sweet kitten Daisy Germany, however, was a bit of a surprise. I'd never traveled internationally, and I had no idea what to expect. After a long direct flight (my first one ever!) from Pittsburgh to Frankfurt it was a haul to get to Bamberg, Germany where I was studying. I did not know what to expect in Europe. For example I had no idea that outlets were different. I was shocked that I couldn't plug in my hair dryer and curling iron. It was cold and rainy the first few days. I was wildly homesick.  I quickly settled, but the culture shock was real. I

Last week my son started first grade. After more than a year of being home and completing kindergarten entirely virtually, it was a big change. He bravely walked into school, and I less bravely walked away sobbing. In the moment that he walked into school without me I realized parenting is learning the art of letting go.  Actually it started before we were parents. It all seems like it'll be pretty seamless: you decide you want kids, you proceed to start trying to have said kids, it happens. Easy peasy. Obviously that's not how it happened in our case. I vividly remember the moment where we had to decide the next step in our fertility struggle. If we were going to be parents we had to decide between IVF or adoption. Given my health issues we chose adoption, but I had to let go of how I thought I'd become a mother. I wasn't going to be pregnant. I wasn't going to experience those in utero firsts. I wasn't going to be able to control what happened during my child&