I find myself in a stage of life that I can’t quite define and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I never would have called myself a label person, but looking back, I can see where knowing exactly where one’s niche is can be a comforting thing. You know where you fit – maybe not perfectly, but you can look around at your peers and define yourself within that concrete group.
But what are you when your kids are grown, but not all are out? When you’ve started working full-time again after years of raising those not quite all gone kids? When you’ve lost control of the menu plans, housework schedules (compounded because there aren’t all those kids around to do chores) and daily routines of life? When someone asks, “Tell me about yourself?” and you can no longer come up with anything definitive.
Girlhood is over. Young wife & motherhood is over. Now it’s time to look around and try to figure out, “What am I now?”
Welcome to Phase Three.
Phase Three will be different for every body, because where we are now depends on what the first two phases looked like. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to dive into existential, “where-has-my-life-gone-and-what-have-I-accomplished?” self-anguish and analysis. I’m a pretty happy person and I don’t have any regrets. But this is another journey, kind of unexpected, and (I think) worth exploring. So here and there, in between other posts and book related stuff, that’s what I think I’ll do.
via Gail McEwen.