In 1984, I was in sixth grade, at the beginning of the worst of the junior high years. At school, cliques were beginning to form, acts of rebellion were starting to hold cachet, and self-consciousness was spreading like a bad virus. I tried to get my bearings as the ground shifted beneath my feet. Just the year before, I’d been…
I no longer have a baby: I have a child. How do I know? She has started to ask the tough questions. I officially entered a new zone of parenthood the moment I heard the words, “Mama, are we all going to die someday?” It was evening, and we were in the throes of the bedtime routine. My three-year-old was…