When people get into therapy, they often say, “I haven’t been the same since …” and they name some life-changing event.
Personally, I haven’t been the same since …
- my first heart surgery at age 10,
- I got my first cat,
- I got my first car,
- I rode a bicycle for the first time,
- my heart valve replacement surgery last September,
- my son was born,
- my son went away to school in Scotland,
- my son returned home for Christmas,
- my son went back to school yesterday,
- I took my first disco dance lesson,
- I met my husband,
- my divorce,
- my cardiac pacemaker was recalled in 1975,
- my cardiac pacemaker/defibrillator was recalled two weeks after my valve replacement surgery in September,
- President John F. Kennedy was killed,
- Bobby Kennedy was killed,
- Martin Luther King was killed,
- John Lennon was killed,
- I went away to college,
- I was attacked by a rapist outside my apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
- I first got into therapy,
- I went to film school,
- I became a therapist,
- Barack Obama was elected President of the United States,
- Donald Trump was elected President of the United States,
- I met my boyfriend Michael,
- I first saw Gene Kelly dance,
- I heard my first pun,
- I made my first pun,
- I attended Berklee School of Music for a summer program when I was in high school,
- I worked on the recruitment tape for Berklee College of Music in the 1990s,
- I did stand-up comedy at an Open Mic,
- my son performed stand-up comedy at an Open Mic,
- I had my first cup of cocoa with marshmallows,
- my father died,
- my mother-in-law died,
- my mother died,
- my father-in-law died on Friday,
- I encountered Mexican food for the first time,
- I had my first black raspberry ice cream cone,
- I saw my first palm tree,
- I started blogging,
- I got my first comment on this blog,
- I bought my first personal computer during the 1980s,
- I wrote computer manuals in the 1970s,
- I slept out under the stars in Monument Valley,
- I went cross country by bus,
- I attended the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
- I heard Pat Metheny play guitar,
- I sang in front of people,
- I met every person who is important to me,
- I saw my first Stephen Sondheim musical,
- I first heard the band Steely Dan over the sound system at a Cambridge store, playing this song …
- and countless other events.
I haven’t been the same since all those things happened and yet I’m still the same person.
I haven’t been the same since I took all these photos:
Give the happiness of a comment and I will end up happy.
I haven’t been the same since I first learned to express gratitude, so many thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and to you — of course! — for being changed and yet the same, every moment.