I’m thirty now. Depressing thirty. Another decade down the tubes, one more closer to our demise. Now if reading women’s magazines, I must consult articles regarding the “over thirty” group of women. I have to stock up on a different category of anti-aging creams and make up. Do I have a different body type now? Can I still shop at Forever 21? I don’t have a home of my own. I don’t have a graduate degree, although I’ve been in school long enough to have a Dr. in front of my name. I don’t have a Mrs. in front of my name either. No children. No tales of backpacking across Europe for a year in my twenties. I am just another tired old gal carrying around broken dreams and failed attempts to fit into this mold of an adult in this American dream…
Or am I?
People are really interested in how one feels about turning thirty. I feel great.
Turning thirty means a time for me to reap what I’ve sowed. I worked my ass off in my twenties, in all aspects of the term “work.” I went to school and worked towards a degree I thought I wanted. I worked up to a career I thought I wanted. I left that career realizing I needed to work on more than work and school. I moved. I worked on my health and having fun. Then I got sick. I realized my soul needed work too. Through working on my soul and my body through yoga and mindfulness, I was able to heal. I went back to school to work towards something I knew would satisfy me mind, body, heart, and soul. Then I realized I needed to work on my heart. Once I was able to let go of all the negativity and truly open myself to what I deserved, only then I could be ready for what was to come. My heart was heavy in other aspects of society and there are so many things I’d like to stand up and fight for, but I started with one. I work everyday since I made that decision and fight with my fork. I still had school and work. I worked and studied and studied to work. When that day finally came, about two months before my thirtieth birthday, the day I finally felt free, I cried.
Sure, I still have to “work” but everything I did in my twenties set me up for an amazing journey in my thirties. No, an amazing journey for the rest of my life. So yes, I still have to go to work, I still must challenge myself mentally, physically, and emotionally, I still have to mind my health, I still have to put the efforts in my relationships, I still feel overwhelmed, and I still have to clean the house. But turning thirty? There is nothing I cannot face.
Showing posts with label social issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social issues. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Book Report Wednesday!
Sooooo. I'm reading for school. Sigh. But it is an interesting book. Very quick read and I may be done with it after today.
The narrator, Caro, has been placed in a "home" due to her old age, health, and recent forgetfulness. Her brother and his much younger wife have "dumped" Caro off at the home. At least that is how Caro feels. Caro spends her days floating through old memories and trying to sort out how her life became what it is now, here at the home. Her caretakers do not seem to really care. Helpless and hopeless. It feels like existential angst as I read it. But I do love getting swept away in Caro's memories and the little things where she finds joy. Such as just being outside and just being. She gets so caught up in existing with the sunlight, she forgets to read her paper. I don't know if the purpose of the book is to demonstrate the singularity of death (at least death's personal process), how elderly are not valued in America, or as a caretaker, how we should not judge and must always treat people as a real and deserving human beings. Maybe it is all of the above. I'll report more when I finish. I have to write a huge paper on one of these books I read. Maybe I'll post the paper or an abridged version. One thing I know about the book already is I love the narrator. I love that she has lived more than many of us ever will, and I hate that she is treated as if none of that matters. Because she did not get married or have kids of her own - society says she has no one to care for her - she is left in this home essentially to die, as if her life never even mattered.
When I was reading one section about Caro and her European love affair, I quickly thought of Beth. Even though Caro has not, or has yet, to get into extreme detail about her one love, I know the possibilities would excite you, Beth! Other readers out there, if the possibilities excite you also, you should check out some Cedar Falls vignettes on Beth's page. Maybe Beth can post us a link to one to start the Cedar Falls virgins off right...
What are you reading now?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Don't Ask...Ahhh...Too Late
Today's post is not from me, but from someone very close to me on an important social issue. Have a read and let me know your thoughts!
My name is Michael Anthony, I am an Iraq war veteran and having spent six years in the Army, at the age of twenty-three, I have spent more than a quarter of my life in service to this country. I have four older brothers and an older sister, all of whom have been in the military: Air Force, Marines and Army. My father and both my grandfathers were in the military.
Hailing originally for a small sheltered town just south of Boston Massachusetts, I say this in all earnestness: the only gay people I know have all been in the military. This is not a joke or some talking point, it’s literal. Generals, Commanders and Civilians can talk all they want, but the fact of the matter is, the only gay friends I've had have all been in the military, in fact, my only experience of gay people (outside of the military) is when I once watched and episode of the TV show Will and Grace (it was kind of funny).
For the policy known as Dont' Ask Don't Tell (DADT), there is one thing people often forget. People forget that the policy doesn’t preclude gay people from entering the military it just precludes them from talking about their homosexuality. In short, someone can be gay in the military; they just can’t talk about being gay in the military.
If people are already in the military and gay — from my former unit alone I know close to a dozen — what is it that people are afraid will happen with the repeal of DADT? Are people afraid that the day after DADT is rescinded; gay soldiers are going to walk in wearing a feather boa and buttless fatigues? The uniform policy will still be in effect so we can cross that option out. Are people afraid that it’s going to hurt troop morale? The Military suicide rate is at a thirty year high having consistently risen for the past five years, with eighteen veterans killing themselves everyday (according to the VA) so it seems like it can’t get any worse.
With everything said, there is a negative aspect to repealing DADT. Having been in the military all my adult years, my peer group is filled with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Several of these war veterans having done two or three tours, have sworn that they will never go back to Iraq or Afghanistan. Upon further questioning on how they plan to get out deployment if called, their answer is simple: “don’t ask, don’t tell,” expounding further, they say that if they’re called up, they will simply kiss a member of the same sex — in front of their commander. So how is repealing DADT going to affect the military? The answer is simple…my friends who jokingly suggested using DADT as a way to get out of a deployment are now stuck going to Iraq or Afghanistan.
And please don’t even get me started on the escapades that go on overseas. But hey, what happens in Iraq stays in Iraq…ahh not quite.
Michael Anthony is the author of MASS CASUALTIES: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009).
The book is drawn from the personal journals of Anthony during the 1st year he spent serving in Iraq. It is a non-partisan look at some of the escapades that go on behind the scenes in Iraq.
My name is Michael Anthony, I am an Iraq war veteran and having spent six years in the Army, at the age of twenty-three, I have spent more than a quarter of my life in service to this country. I have four older brothers and an older sister, all of whom have been in the military: Air Force, Marines and Army. My father and both my grandfathers were in the military.
Hailing originally for a small sheltered town just south of Boston Massachusetts, I say this in all earnestness: the only gay people I know have all been in the military. This is not a joke or some talking point, it’s literal. Generals, Commanders and Civilians can talk all they want, but the fact of the matter is, the only gay friends I've had have all been in the military, in fact, my only experience of gay people (outside of the military) is when I once watched and episode of the TV show Will and Grace (it was kind of funny).
For the policy known as Dont' Ask Don't Tell (DADT), there is one thing people often forget. People forget that the policy doesn’t preclude gay people from entering the military it just precludes them from talking about their homosexuality. In short, someone can be gay in the military; they just can’t talk about being gay in the military.
If people are already in the military and gay — from my former unit alone I know close to a dozen — what is it that people are afraid will happen with the repeal of DADT? Are people afraid that the day after DADT is rescinded; gay soldiers are going to walk in wearing a feather boa and buttless fatigues? The uniform policy will still be in effect so we can cross that option out. Are people afraid that it’s going to hurt troop morale? The Military suicide rate is at a thirty year high having consistently risen for the past five years, with eighteen veterans killing themselves everyday (according to the VA) so it seems like it can’t get any worse.
With everything said, there is a negative aspect to repealing DADT. Having been in the military all my adult years, my peer group is filled with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Several of these war veterans having done two or three tours, have sworn that they will never go back to Iraq or Afghanistan. Upon further questioning on how they plan to get out deployment if called, their answer is simple: “don’t ask, don’t tell,” expounding further, they say that if they’re called up, they will simply kiss a member of the same sex — in front of their commander. So how is repealing DADT going to affect the military? The answer is simple…my friends who jokingly suggested using DADT as a way to get out of a deployment are now stuck going to Iraq or Afghanistan.
And please don’t even get me started on the escapades that go on overseas. But hey, what happens in Iraq stays in Iraq…ahh not quite.
Michael Anthony is the author of MASS CASUALTIES: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009).
The book is drawn from the personal journals of Anthony during the 1st year he spent serving in Iraq. It is a non-partisan look at some of the escapades that go on behind the scenes in Iraq.
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